Kills

Smoking Kills. European cigarette packages have incredible labels. They say awesome things on them like "Smoking kills", "Smoking is deadly", and "Smoking may lead to a slow and painful death." (Some of those are translated from German.) It doesn't matter... People still smoke like chimneys. I think that is a complex cultural difference between the US and Europe that has so many levels I will probably never be able to describe it. I'm sure there are elements of the American I'm-not-capable-of-being-responsible-for-my-own-actions attitude involved. There need to be 300 word warnings in little letters on the package. The warning probably has to be in standardized language to be legally significant. Here, its clear. "Oh! - this product, in very simple language, will kill me. That's ok. I understand and accept responsibility for my actions."

It's probably also got to do with the If-we-don't-talk-about-it-its-not-true attitude. "It's not labelled as deadly poisonous in a way that is visible from 20 feet away, so it must not be deadly poisonous." The same attitude is evident in the way families deal with issues. "We don't talk to our daughter about sex, so its safe to assume they are not having it." "We don't talk to our parents about their marital problems, so obviously everything is fine." Don't ask-don't tell.

Alright, well, I have really gotten on my little soap box there... We have our stupid little cultural issues, but its not like its any better that Europeans are so open about the fact that smoking kills and yet THEY STILL DO IT! Not only do they still do it, there are very few laws (becoming popular now in the US) to protect the second-hand smoker. And just because you are open to talk about sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll doesn't mean that its ok to do all of them in every situation.

I have been reading a book called "Bush, Baseball, and Barbeque: The 39 1/2 Biases About The United States". It's a really interesting book written by a European about the way Europeans see the US. It also points the finger in both directions. It reminds me of some of the things about the US I had forgotten in taking a 'European' point of view. (Here, European point of view means everything about the US is bad.) I feel like its giving me a much more realistic handle on my feelings towards US culture and politics. Lots of what we do is not perfect (what country does everything perfect?), and yet, a lot of what we do, really isn't all that bad. Anyway, I don't know if there is an English edition, but I would certainly recommend you read it. If you want to read it in German, I will gladly lend it to you as soon as I am finished.

Alright, so I don't know how it happened; I didn't want to write much for this picture but I did anyway. I am frustrated with my photos of late and I don't know exactly why. They feel lame and boring and stale. I am going to have to do some soul-searching to figure out why they suck so much. I'll get back to you when I know and continue to give you the best I can until then. See you tomorrow.