Living in stereo, and high definition
These are highlights from a live-recorded roundtable discussion between 10 cultural innovators who are abandoning the map in order to live more fully.
Dialogue2010 is an audio project designed and curated by artist and writer Rose Deniz and hosted at my site for global citizens, ExpatHarem.com.
Moderator ROSE DENIZ: How do you define a hybrid lifestyle?
LIFE WITH MORE FACETS “There are expressions in Italian that express an idea or a concept that didn’t exist for me before, didn’t exist in English. So life is so much richer. There are just so many facets to a hybrid lifestyle.” — Karen Armstrong Quartarone
SYNTHESIZING MULTIPLE INPUTS: “It’s a bit like a stereo-radio where we have multiple inputs coming in, stimulating us to grow or to be creative in a way that people living in single culture don’t get. It could be from a simple idea where two people from different cultures approach a problem so differently. We can see that and then translate into our own lives.”– Catherine Yiğit
LIVING IN FULL-COLOR, HIGH DEFINITION: “People who don’t lead a hybrid lifestyle are looking at a black and white television. Very one-dimensional. A hybrid life is not only getting the color. You’re taking the different aspects of the different cultures and synthesizing it. You’re really making it poetic, musical and into a symphony. I’m not surprised everyone in this discussion is a writer, is passionate about creativity, is thinking about design. Because we are constantly creating our own masterpieces.” — Elmira Bayraslı
HONORING THE INTERSECTION OF MANY WORLDS WE BELONG TO: “Like our blood, our upbringing, our schooling, our surroundings, the chance meetings of life that have pulled us one way or another in the pursuit of our interests. World travel, marrying across culture, these are just some of the ways that I think we’re split beings. And trying to live in a way that honors all those different parts of ourselves is the hybrid lifestyle.” — Anastasia Ashman
BEING A MONSTER AND LIKING IT: “My mom is American, my dad is from Sri Lanka but we’ve lived all over the world. This has shaped me and is one reason why I’m into horror. I’ve always felt like a perpetual outsider. I look different. People say, “Where are you from?” I’m always from somewhere else. Monsters are hybrids, too. They’re made of disparate things and they stand out. I feel empowered by the monster metaphor. It’s good to have a little bit of other people’s fear on your side. You’re unpredictable.” — Sezin Koehler
KNOWING HOW TO READ THE MAP *AND* GO OFF-ROAD: “It’s the ability to be able to read the map and navigate our lives with a GPS, but also to know when to go off the beaten path. The freedom and the courage to flip off the GPS and see where it goes. How else can you see if it provides the exciting mix that you find in yourself? Being able to switch in and out, and the flexibility of that.” — Catherine Salter Bayar
BOTH AND NEITHER: “I’m both of the cultures and neither of them at the same time. I see a lot more possibilities than I saw before just having one perspective. I can see many more ways to do things, many more solutions to problems, many different words for the same object or the same idea. My life has become richer in possibility because of changing where I live.” — Tara Lutman Ağacayak
BEING OPEN TO THE UNKNOWN, MERGING DIFFERENT PARTS OF SELF AND CULTURE: “I could relate to the unpredictability and impulse in wanting to go somewhere. My definition includes the idea of being open to the unknown and merging these disparate parts of not just myself, but also the culture. Openness allowed these different things to exist somewhat harmoniously. — Rose Deniz
TAPPING INTO EXTRA ENERGY FROM OUR PAST FOR USE TODAY: “Just like the car that drives on [both gasoline and] electricity, we can bounce back by using what is part of our upbringing and past whenever we can’t quite figure it out in the new world. There is that little extra that we bring. As long as we remain aware of that, and we know to turn on the switch when necessary.” — Judith van Praag
BEING FLUID, WILLING TO FLEX AND CHANGE: “Even though I grew up in the Midwest in white suburbia, I felt like an outsider. For most of my life, even in college, until I actually went abroad. Now my whole life has kind of been adapting, something fluid and changing with the circumstances. I didn’t imagine myself as a writer, or in China or even think that I would speak Chinese. It all came out of this serendipitous decision to go to China. My life in this Taoist way emerged, changed, and grew.” — Jocelyn Eikenburg
Moderator ROSE DENIZ: This discussion became not just about living the hybrid lifestyle but about being hybrid in and of itself, and I think it is a very interesting development.
