Persuit of happiness

„Who knows how often in life of a human, one cheering word or sunshine missed to make everything different, because the person would have decided different. Not the sunshine or the word would have been the cause, but the good conditions” (Guss) What I think this quote says is that everything is connected and you might easily make somebody's life better, just by little things. Do not neglect your actions having effects and try to make good conditions.

"Indeed, I suspect that there may be a positive correlation between the emotional intensity with which a controversial belief is defende and the absence of reflective thought about the belief by him who thus defends it." John Mothershead. Some reflections on the Meaning of Freedom in The Journal of Philosophy

There and back- Orient und Okzident

Istanbul
People make each other stranger than they are. Living for five weeks in Istanbul I saw a proof that cross cutting cleavages through a society are a lot more important than the one between cultures.
With the knowledge of all borders of culture being lose and dynamic, I sometimes saw myself being confronted with views which involve borders. I could observe that there was identity construction through me. As I was sometimes told of something being Turkish, meanwhile me not seeing it particular as Turkish. Was it introducing parts of a culture to me, reminding themselves of what is suppose to be Turkish. I am really aware of identity construction, because I know reification is bullshit and done by anybody to simplify and it is me being mostly in charge of constructing my own identity. Still I felt as if anybody was trying to make me a part of "the Germans", was reducing me. The same people at the same time, overreacted if they just felt a slide hint of me saying something was Turkish.
This all shows to me that even though you might be intellectually aware of the phenomena of In-group/ Outgroup processes, you could still do in conscienceless way. Even though you might say everybody is the same, you still look at the differences.
For my experiences, I didn't see a lot. It mostly depended on what you do as your job. Lifestyle is far less influenced by cultural heritage as people believe.
Not to say culture isn't a factor. Rather saying that culture consists of multiple factors from which people choose, with the conclusion that after equation from different cultures similar sums might come out.
Looking back at Istanbul, I just saw the lifestyle of my environment, which at the end didn't differ so much.