Relation

As I mentioned in our last class, I find it very interesting what we think or say we are related to. The whole notion of relation is an interesting one to me. We chose to read Bayou Farewell last because it was what was closest to us as well as what we could relate most to. While I agree with the first part, I don't necessarily think we can for the later. While many have lived in Louisiana their whole life, I don't know how many have lived down in the Bayou or the lives of these Cajun shrimpers. We all live with electronics to play with, roads to drive on, fast food for late night munchies and mall and bouquets to shop at. We can get to all these places by streetcar or our own car. We go back to dorms or house that aren't on stilts. These people live a life that is based on the land and the focus on their craft, shrimping or crabbing. While I understand the concepts of the bayou sinking and the livelihood of people disappearing as well. I understand the terrible thing that is happening in the state I live in but I cannot truly understand these people's struggles and daily lives. The understanding I have of the stories in the text are ones that I have experiences through meeting people that lives this way or in relation to things in my own life; I often think of distant relatives in Mexico that live solely on land too. It is strange that we often use relate to mean understand conceptually. While I understand the stories being told by my own personal experiences and through reading the text, I do not actually relate though. I began to think of the things that I say I relate to and where I am correct and incorrect. I often say that I can relate to people that are second generation whatever-American personally being Mexican-American. Though in reality, all I have in common is the number generation. I might share some of the experience, but I really don't know the lives that person has lived due to their being second-generation. This also made me think of when someone tells you "oh I have that same shirt except it is navy, has buttons and is long sleeve." So basically this is nothing like your shirt at all? There are certainly times that I say can relate to something and truly can. I can relate to someone who went to an all-girls Catholic school, then went to a Catholic University and joined a sorority. In nature and our experiences learning about it, I find we often times say "I can relate" though we really can just understand. When someone tell us of a trip somewhere, we say we can relate because we too have been somewhere else in that same country. When looking at pictures of a park, we say we can relate because we have been to a park in our hometown too. Coming back to a concept we talked about in the beginning of the semester and still struggle with is that words are not useful or conducive to describing our experiences or nature. Words are such static things and our experiences and nature is anything but. We have to be so careful with words. I know I will be especially careful to what I can I can relate to know or what I simply understand.