Originally Posted by
LadyFirehawk
Yes, I made an overused Pokemon reference in my thread title. I suppose it comes of being a gamer and really having only that particular subculture to draw off of, seeing as the USA lacks much in the way of unified culture. Unfortunately this means I'm a little more vague than I'd like to be about my heritage; I don't know exactly what traces out of where, only that it is almost completely Scandinavian and/or Anglo-Saxon in origin. (With some German thrown in for good measure, and some Celtic while we're at it.)
Anyway, I have only recently ditched Christianity, as it has truly felt rather foreign to me for all the time I've practiced it, and turned to heathenry as a means of combating the rootlessness that seems so endemic to many Americans these days. (And, by extension, my own disconnect from my ancestry.) It seems just about everyone besides Germanic-descended Americans is allowed some sort of cultural or ancestral pride; however, if we of Germanic descent claim to be proud of our ancestry, suddenly we're racist. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
Most of my closest friends throughout the years have had strong cultural identities, all of which I admired in different ways but none of which I could personally identify with. Although I am not really one to look down my nose at other people, the Wiccan cafeteria approach to spirituality has always somewhat rubbed me the wrong way-- even if some of the ideals of other cultural groups speak to me, it seems wrong to appropriate them; around here, in Western Washington, Amerindian spirituality seems to be one of the worst victims of that appropriation. Have we truly become so lost that we must steal the ways of others? Although I would have few compunctions against sitting in on, say, a Vodoun ceremony, or a tribal drum circle, I am conscious that it would always be as an outsider, albeit one who was invited. What ways do I get to call my own?
I don't know the answer to that just yet, as this is the start of what promises to be a very long journey. For the moment I'm trying to focus on surviving college with my personal integrity intact; although many of my friends are left-wingers, SOMEONE has to throw that bone of contention in there to get them all to think outside the box, and that someone may as well be me! All this 'global oneness' junk really grinds my gears, and reading Steve McNallen's Fire and the Fog truly struck a chord.
As to me, I play a lot of tabletop RPGs, the occasional bit of World of Warcraft, write primarily science fiction and dabble in various handicrafts as the mood strikes me. (Although I unfortunately have not stuck with any particular craft long enough to get good at it...) Unfortunately, being so interested in so many things also makes it extremely hard to find a coherent direction so I am now stuck in the unenviable position of determining which of several sciences I ought to pursue.
If you read all this randomness and do NOT want to throw things at me yet, have a cookie. (The Internet kind, but not THAT Internet kind.) Unfortunately, I'm still tinkering with the gluten-free version to make them taste decent, so they are not available quite yet...
A Wild LadyFirehawk Appears!
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I´ve to say that I found your introduction extraordinarily interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing some bits of your own history and uncertainties regarding your new fate and the question about how to cope with the lack of culture in today´s America. 
My favourites are Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment and Dragon Age! 
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