Culture is Like Kansas

I have many friends who have driven across Kansas, some twice a year while moving between summer and winter homes. Others use it a easy get-away from hot Missouri Augusts to Colorado’s pine-rimmed meadows. They value Kansas for its straight, fast highways that allow them to distance many miles in a day. If asked to describe the state, they mention the wheat fields that measure in hundreds of acres. They know about the vistas that stretch 30 miles to the next grain elevator. They recognize a difference between Kansas and their home state because they see fewer lakes, flatter land, and a seeming absence of trees. Many times they’ve driven Interstate 70 or Highway 54. They’ve seen Kansas.

I grew up in Kansas and have traveled to its various corners. I know Kansas but I know a different Kansas from my friends. I know the Flint Hills of Chase County, green and wild-flowered, that belie the image of a flat state. I know the Cheyenne Bottoms, a huge wetlands important for migratory waterfowl that refutes the claim that Kansas is waterless. I know the lead, zinc, and coal mines of southeast Kansas. Who knew that the wheat state had mines?

Kansas is not just a land, it’s a people. I know the Amish of Yoder and the German Mennonites of Newton, who immigrated here from the steppes of Russia and brought the red winter wheat that makes Kansas famous. I’ve been to the Scottish Festival in McPherson that celebrates another heritage. The first homesteads of free African-Americans occurred in Kansas. In spite of Ft. Sumpter’s claim to fame, the American Civil War really started in Kansas with pro- and anti-slavery forces warring and pillaging each other two years before the cannonballs flew in Charleston Harbor.

Many farming states celebrate the harvest in late summer or early fall when the corn is in the crib or the potatoes are out of the ground. In Kansas we celebrate the harvest in June. Our winter wheat ripens early and by middle or late June we want our crop stored safely in the grain elevators before the July hail storms flatten the stalks to the ground.

Kansas is so many thing and so many people. It’s different from Tennessee or Montana or even neighboring Oklahoma but that’s not always obvious while speeding along on our wonderful highways.

Culture is like Kansas. Sometimes you have to slow down to see the differences.

It’s easy to see some differences in Bulgaria from the United States. The cars are smaller. This is Europe after all. Yes, houses in small towns have gardens but then we had gardens in Kansas too. But in Kansas we grew gardens to have fresh food. Here people have gardens not only for fresh but also for winter food…and winters are long. And yes, here in Sapareva Banya there are cows and goats going down the streets early in the morning on the way to daily pasture, so some differences are easy to spot. But other differences take a little longer to sink in. Just as driver has to slow down in Kansas and take the roads less traveled to see the nuances of the state, I am trying to slow myself down to see life as a Bulgarian.

I got one little lesson today. My host bought some green beans at the little store a few blocks away and I was helping him to shell them. We were talking about the difference in price for beans between Bulgaria and the United States. It’s a frequent conversation between us that allow me to practice using numbers in the Bulgarian language. In the discussion, with my limited language, my host was surprised to learn that in America fresh green beans cost more per pound than green beans in a can. In Bulgaria people buy fresh produce because canned goods are more expensive.

Then we finished shelling the beans. Now what do we do with the empty pods? In America, we throw that in the trash because we’re done with them. In Bulgaria you feed that to a horse. And if you don’t have a horse, then you find a neighbor who does and you give the bean pods to him.

So, there were two little lessons in culture today. Culture is frequently nothing more than a different way of looking at life. I’ll let you know when I am able to see more.

There are no photos in today’s blog. Pictures are for looking at. Most often culture is for experiencing.