Culture is who we are. When all else falls away–time moves forward, the landsape shifts, politics progresses, the old disappears, the new arises–it’s culture that endures. Our stories, our songs, the beliefs at the center of all we do.
A poem is fleeting. A concert is over in a few hours. A play might run for three weeks. It feels pretty ephemeral–but the cultural vibrancy lasts longer than buildings, longer than cities, longer than anything else in our lives.
Think about it. We find our deepest meaning in stories that are thousands of years old. New songs resonate throughout the youtubisphere that are based on musical formulas from centuries ago. We dance to rhythms born with all our ancestors, at the beginning of human time.
That common rhythm, those stories, the poetry and scripture that keeps us going–that’s what we mean when we talk about culture. We’re really talking about what makes life meaningful, and what endures beyond us when we’re gone.
We can’t afford not to participate in it, together, here in our community. It is our shared humanity. From what I can see, it’s the source of our deepest strength.
—Krys Holmes, Executive Director The Myrna Loy