Cultural Adaptations

I'm sure all the ladies in the congregation were charmed by Pastor Allen's description of himself decked out in his Daniel Boone outfit as a little man. But I was struck by his insight in using this illustration of cross-culturalism. Here he was, an American child growing up in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and Australia, trying to cling to his national and cultural identity. As he explained, holding on to the myths of American folklore was one of the tangible ways he could identify with his native land.

It reminded me of a similar story my wife Linda tells from her missionary days in Peru in the 1960's. One of the mission families sent their five-year-old to Peruvian kindergarten so that he could become fluent in Spanish (most of the MK's in her mission were tutored at home). It was common in Peru at that time for kindergarteners of both sexes to wear dress-like smocks, which went almost to the ground. Fortunately, young Scotty Furr had no cultural biases against this, and was not self-conscious about it at all. He also saw no incongruity in trotting off to Spanish kindergarten with his Gene Autry cowboy boots sticking out from underneath his adorable little smock. But it was a source of amusement to my dually-cultured wife!