Thank God Popular Culture Has some Depth these days

Penelope Moksha Holliday
May 2, 2017
3 min read

Growing up I felt like an outsider.

I never understood most of why I was supposed to think the way they wanted me to in elementary school. I didn’t get why I was supposed to cheer for my team in high school. I did not understand why movie and rock stars were such a rage. They did nothing for me. I went through my life in suburban America feeling like a foreigner.

The times I was able to connect somehow to spirit were the only times that enlivened me: singing in choir, going on long bicycle rides, praying, playing outside and connecting with others at summer camp. But I hungered for more. I pretty much went through my first decades of life always hungry in my soul.

I discovered yoga in 1995 as I was looking for tools to help me to have a natural childbirth. Yoga did that, and so much more, for me. Yoga brought me closer to the aspects of myself that I was separate from, and lonely for. I continued to do Yoga weekly alongside regular life until in 2003 when the Christian religion I was raised in failed to nourish my spirit. I began seeking more.

I began exploring the eastern spiritual and healing world and it fed me. I felt so much connection to others and purpose with the Eastern ways. I was drawn to them in a way that could not be explained logically. I found the Art of Living and with it my Guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. He invited me to meet myself. He showed me that I was so much more than this body and temporary identity. He helped me see myself as eternal and unending. I even remembered past lives where I was African, Chinese, French, German, Polynesian, Native American and more. I began to see this identity of me as my way of showing up in this life time to work out my karma. I feel a connection to so many histories. They belong to me too because soul has no nationality. I am nourished by so many ways.

I remember well the first time I felt like I was HOME. I was walking over the foot bridge: Ram jhula in Rishikesh India and looking down at Ma Ganga; the Ganges River. I felt her love so powerfully. I felt home on the planet for the first time in my life. This gave me a visceral experience that all ancient cultures are native to all of us. By being human we share all ancient wisdom.

What is wrong with popular culture or peer pressure that draws women to cultural practices they did not grow up with? In my experience the popular culture of the 80's and 90's in the USA was demoralizing. I hated it. Now there is something I can dig. I can do yoga. I can chant. I can go to crunchy restaurants and wear unique clothes. And I have a tribe who is there with me. I am no longer the loner that doesn’t follow sports or go to bars. I am in community with people who are seeking depth from ancient wisdom.

If some of my sisters are going along to get along I rejoice in that. If being cool means being spiritual; then good. Ancient wisdom belongs to us all.

Thank God popular culture has depth these days.