Loving Across Boundaries

As part of the Cultural Arts Center Blog we seek to share a little bit of personal perspective of how the staff and community embrace the working mission of our program.   To kick off the series, this week's offering is from Siobhan Quinn, Director of the Cultural Arts Center.

Loving Across Boundaries

Valentine’s day.  Some view it as strictly commercial, some don’t.  Many recognize the day in the United States as a way to celebrate their love.    Love across boundaries is a common theme in many films, music, dance, and other methods of story telling 

In my own family, love has taken many directions across cultural, geographic, religious, racial, and political lines.  My five siblings and I are first generation American, and were born of an Irish father and an English mother.  My Irish Catholic sister married a Jewish man. My brothers have married in four very different directions.  My sisters in law include a first generation combination of Japanese & American, first generation German American, a woman of Irish descent, and one of my eldest brothers moved to Paris, where that sister in law is a first generation combination of French & Senegalese. 

Honestly, the kids at our family reunions begin to look a little like they are part of a United Nations event.  We often discover more similarities than differences.  The children have grown to embrace all sorts of traditions with a kind respect for people different from themselves.  They will find even more in common as our world shrinks through social media, but they will also continue to find some fascinating differences. Perhaps they will partner across traditional divisions as well. 

As Director of the Cultural Arts Center at Montgomery College, I recognize that it is in our mission to explore and share different cultural perspectives.  This is not an effort to create a mere tolerance for one another, but to create a true understanding of where we come from, and what our neighbor’s perspectives are as well.  I am consistently impressed with the conversations taking place before and after programs at the CAC. Our community of diverse friendships has grown exponentially.

This St. Valentine’s Day, distance is the line I must cross.  I grew up in New York and my husband is a child of the United States—he was born in the south, growing up in a military family, and moving frequently.   For the first time in nine years we will be apart.   He is currently in a Spanish immersion program in Mexico, learning to communicate more fully with those around him.    Like many of our students here at the college, Skype makes it easier to communicate with home.

It’s a big world out there with many blurred boundaries. In the spirit of this celebration of love where people express themselves in so many different ways—chocolate, flowers, a special event or meal— I hope that today we can all show a little bit of love and kindness to one another.

Happy Valentine’s Day.  I’ll enjoy celebrating Spanish culture this Saturday with Ensemble Español.  I hope you’ll join me.  If you would like to share your cultural connections and experiences of living and reaching across the line, we welcome your comments.