Last week I was working busily at my desk at my internship, and decided to do something bold.
My desk is located directly across from the office of a former ambassador to the Middle East, who writes and edits for our magazine. Everyday since I have started, our dialogue has been minimal--"hey," "hello," and that's pretty much it. My desk is also located close to the coffee machine, an area of the office he frequents. For my own selfish reasons--the fact that I am applying for three National Scholarships and could use the recommendation--I decided that I should enhance our discourse and strike a conversation.
He is in his late 50s, I am 19. He is from the Deep South, and grew up on a farm. I grew up in South Jersey and entered the work force at a Cold Stone Creamery in a strip mall. He has negotiated the trade of oil and prisoners between hostile governments. I, well, have not.
Last week as the ambassador was pouring himself some coffee, and said to, seeing that I was eating a black and white cookie and said "That looks good." Now what I could have said was "It is thank you." But what I did say was:
"The key to eating a black and white cookie is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate. And yet, still, somehow racial harmony eludes us."
I quoted Seinfeld.
Bold, right? Now, quoting Seinfeld is second nature to me, but I think I should have caught it and stopped myself in the work place, this could have backfired horribly. In my defense, I was overtired and had spent the entire night studying for an economics exam I had taken that morning. However, his response was surprising.
"If people would only look to the cookie," completing the quote.
We both laughed and, like the pivotal moment in every episode of House*, I had an mini-epiphany. Popular culture is really the preeminent forum for people with wide disparities of personal experience to connect with one another and communicate. Although me and the ambassador both speak English, are both working and living in Washington, DC, and are both interested in United States foreign policy in the Middle East, without the help of Jerry Seinfeld I would not have made this connection.
*any anecdote about popular culture should not be without its own reference.
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This really is a great example of using popular culture to bring people of different cultures and age groups together. Popular culture in many cases seems to bring together people that are inherintly different in many levels, but still enjoy the same things. Your enjoyment from Seinfeld allowed you to break the ice with a man that is older, culturally, and ethnically different from you.
ReplyDeleteI know when I was studying in Prague, we were matched up with a Czech buddy who lived with us and showed us around. I don't know what we would have done if we didn't use popular music, movies, or tv shows to break the ice when we first met. He grew up in a post-Communist country and had very little in common with Americans, except for our common knowledge of the Simpsons, Rihanna, and the Transformers movie. Popular culture allowed us to look past our differences and find a comradery.