Culture affects us. I know this because when I immerse myself in a given culture I am always surprised by my personal responses which usually leads me to want things that normally I would not be at all attracted to. For instance, one year at a dog show, I simply had to have a rolling canvas bag with doggies all over it. I spent all weekend watching woman walk around with their rolling canvas bags and it became a desire to have one. I caved to that desire and I bought it. I then wheeled things around it all weekend and took it home where it sat in the closet for a year or so before heading to Salvation Army.

In the spring we spend a lot of time at horse shows. Now woman at horse shows have their own culture. They like bling and they like it alot. Its on their bags, their belts, their clothes and their jewerly. Big earings and bigger necklaces. When you are not observing these woman with their bling you are walking around looking at other vendors who are selling the bling. It does not take very long before the bling starts to look cute and you start to wonder what bling you should buy and wear. Last year, I purchase a necklace and a pair of earings. I wore the earings several times but when I cleaned out my jewerly boxs this spring they hit the garbage can. There is simply no place in my real world where wearing that kind of jewerly works.

If I can be so affected by three, fourteen hour days, immersed in a culture, then how affected are we by the constant bombardment of our larger culture. The internet, the radio, billboards, television, and our schools. The larger question is, if I can be so affected as an adult, wise in the ways of the world and its ploys, how much more affected are our children.

Each time I have made an unwise purchase based on a culture that I was immersed in, I went home and quickly realized the purchase only worked in that specific culture. Returning to my home was the bucket of ice water on cultural influence. The only way to protect ourselves and our children from this is to refuse to be immersed. It is unavoidable for me due to the nature of our work. It is not unavoidable for us in the larger culture. We can limit our exposure to television and print media. We can choose what contact we are going to have with what culture. If I choose the culture of television than I should not be surprised when my four old talks like Raven and wants to dress like Britney Spears or rather undresses like her. It is inevitable that our children will have the values they are immersed in.