Tag: cultures

The principles that define how I live.

When I think about how I want to live, a few ideas come to mind. I think they are sort of how I see my life and lifestyle. I do know there is a difference between principles and practices. Sometimes I don’t always have the time, energy, or money to live out my principles to the maximum, but they are what I strive to attain. Below are a few things that come to mind.

  1. Respect. I strive to respect others, and I expect them to do the same. I can tolerate a lot, but I still respect this quality in people and hope to embody it. It is a challenge for me, because I am a little too witty, and I can be very sarcastic. I can also rant with with the best of them if disturbed. That just makes me more stressed out though.
  2. Kindness. I think this is in tune with respect. As you might have guessed, I am a fairly empathic person. I believe that treating people with respect and kindness greatly improves their quality of life.
  3. Understanding. I have spent a lot of my life studying and thinking about deep subjects. I have a fairly high intelligence and have had a voracious appetite for knowledge throughout most of my life. I seek to truly understand everyone.
  4. Beauty. I like being surrounded by beautiful things. Nice clothes, clean and nicely decorated home, etc. I also like the arts and natural beauty. I can’t deny that physical beauty has an effect on me, but I try to not let it interfere with my judgement.
  5. Creativity. There has always been a little bit of creativity at work inside me. As a child, I was artistic. Creativity also came out in my computer programming. Even right now, I am pursuing the creativity of writing. It goes with the love of beauty.
  6. Elegance. I lean toward having a refined taste. Refinement, grace, and beauty in movement, appearance, and manners is something that calls to me. I don’t see myself as a snob, nor do I like snobbery, but I do like elegance.
  7. Sophistication. I like the idea of being sophisticated. I don’t know if I meet the mark, but I think I aim for the target. I like know about the world in general, and it’s many people and cultures.
  8. Quality. I like things that don’t look cheap, or break, or wear out easily. I sort of respect this about heirlooms or antiques. I don’t own a lot of them, but I like that some things were made to last. I wish more things were made to high standards.
  9. Minimalism. I wouldn’t say I like an empty house, but I don’t like too much. If there is clutter everywhere, it make me uneasy. It’s about having just the right things and not a lot of things that you don’t use. I’m ok with things of beauty of course.
  10. Cleanliness. I like things to be clean and tidy. I know it takes a lot of energy to keep everything clean, but minimalism helps. Of course, this also goes along with personal hygiene. I try not to judge, but it’s really a must if you are around people.

What do you think of my choices? What would you add? Let me know in the comments, and please remember to like, share, and subscribe!

The aspects of my cultural heritage that interest me.

Many years ago, when my grandparents were still alive, I tried to research my family tree. It was at a time when genealogical research seemed to be popular, and several web sites had popped up that were trying to document human family trees, like Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com. I started with all my parents and grandparents could tell me, then used these online sites to conduct further research. I remember I had very little luck tracing my dad’s family tree. My mom’s ancestry was a different story.

As I started to trace my mom’s family tree backwards, many of the branches did begin to sort of drop off due to lack of documented information available to me, but there was one branch from my mom’s mother’s family tree that seemed to just keep going. It was all documented very well and I couldn’t figure out why.

Then something interesting happened. I noticed that many of the people in my family appeared to be sort of important. There were a lot of lords and bishops coming up, many of them famous enough to have articles about them on the Internet. Finally, after going back many generations, I ran into a very famous historical figure. As it turns out, I am a direct descendant of Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III in 800 AD.

This was very interesting to me at the time. I’m very happy with all my ancestors, those that were royal, and those that were not, those that were famous, and those that were not. They came here, struggled through all the hard times that life throws at you, made difficult decisions, and were finally laid to rest. I am very glad they were here, every one of them, and I’d just like to say thank you for keeping this family tree going. Your son is proud of what you did.

After all this, I also decided that what my ancestors did isn’t really going to be my legacy. That was their life and what they decided to do with it. I have my own lifetime to live. I’m pretty sure I won’t become a famous king. I’m still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe, if I’m really lucky, I will be remembered for something that makes it all worthwhile.

On a final note, I hope this doesn’t change anyone’s opinion of me. I am not my ancestors, and I want to be recognized for who I am, not for who they were. Their decisions were not my decisions. I didn’t start any wars, or own any slaves, or change history in any way. I know that people, kingdoms, cultures, and religions have collided over the years, and we are all a part of that, but I don’t think we are to blame for any of it. The future is our story. I’m just Ken, and the past is history.

What about your cultural history interests you? Do you have any famous people in your family tree? Let me know in the comments, and please remember to like, share, and subscribe!