[FOOT] Extra Post 2: A Response to "Missing Culture"

On April 18th, a piece was written for NPR titled "The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything." It chronicles the math of the fact that with so much art (in all varieties out there), we will never be able to consume a very small fraction of it in our entire life. A bit depressing, and while I agree with its ending point of being "well-read" not meaning reading everything, but rather putting in a genuine effort of consuming a plethora of great art throughout your life, I think it misses a crucial point: other people and their role in your "well-read"-ness.

While I will not frivolously belabor some ignorant point that somehow having others in your life will ever make you as intelligent on a piece of work as much as actually indulging in it, I believe there is something to be said about understanding the broader, universal concepts that are presented and how that is much more of a discussion point than the name of a random character. What I mean by this is that, in short, you don't always have to have read a piece of work to hold your own in a conversation on a piece of literature/music/art/etc. As I stated, yes, actually indulging in the piece will give you a better picture of the exact piece, but this does not make it impossible to be able to understand conversation on the piece with a little research.

This is where human communication comes into play. I can connect to a piece of culture through others' understanding of it. I may not have seen the movie or read the book, but I can have it described to me and hear things through others' lenses and then create my own. You can still absorb so much more culture than can be read and seen just on our own. It's part of the human connection and being a part of a society. It's broadening our horizons through others.

This is not to undermine the task of actually partaking yourself, for no experience could outweigh that, but it's also a balance of finding what is important to you while also trying to expand through others and finding an even plane between the two.