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I understand the idea of an object not holding any meaninguntil it is given meaning. I think many of the differences that exist betweencultures arise because of differences in the meanings that we place on certainobjects or concepts. This is also the reason that it can be so easy to offendsomeone. For example, certain religious groups put a lot of value and meaningon certain animals that may hold no special meaning for other groups. When anindividual is not aware of the religious significance of the animal, it may beeasy for them to offend the religious group by eating or harming the animal insomeway. The individual never learned to put any significant meaning on theanimal, so it is difficult for her to understand why the religious group isoffended. This is why I believe that education about differentcultural/religious groups is so important. Humans don’t have the inheritability to understand and except every aspect of  all cultures. In order to live peacefully with everyone, weneed to have the ability to see an object in many alternative ways.

I also found our discussion of memory very interesting. Thediscussion made me think of a situation that happened to a childhood friend.She had a dream when she was 5 years old of being taken hostage by an armedrobber in a store but somehow she remembered this dream as reality. For over 10years, she completely believed that this event had happened until she wroteabout it in a college essay and her mother confronted her about the incident.If the I-function is the storyteller and controls and shapes our memory, whywould it choose to remember a terrifying experience that didn’t actually occur?I also wonder how common it is for individuals to have a dream or see a movieand ultimately interpret these stories as fact? It makes me leery about some ofmy own memories, did they actually occur?