In-between-ness

There has been a new call to ban female genital mutilation (FGM) which, according to wikipedia was something that was even practiced in the United States until well into the 20th century to prevent masturbation. There are still 168,000 women or girls circumcised or at risk of FGM in the US (according to Census data.) I couldn't find the statistics for Portugal.

I pass a moment wondering what this has to do with "em duas linguas". But that moment passes. It's relevant at a meta-level - where you are exploring those boundaries between the process of creating, learning and refining the values that you have developed (in one or other languages) with the values of "diversity" or "multi-" and "inter-culturalism". Some things, like female mutilation, are easier than others. It's wrong - no matter what culture it comes from.

But in the everyday life of an everyday person living in another culture you are posed every day with decisions (often unconscious) about what values you hang on to, which values you refine and which ones you reject. And also - how you reconcile and grow with the synergies between the two. FGM is an easy decision in my own personal "in-between-ness". There are so many others which are not.