I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions.

Future orientation is combined with a notion and expectation of progress, and nothing is impossible.

My academic identity is that of a folklorist, and for many years I have taught only folklore courses.

Life, it seems, is nothing if not a series of initiations, transitions, and incorporations.

I mentioned that one of the tripartite formulas in American worldview involves time: past, present, and future.

Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents.

In the light of our culture, these are not unreasonable questions and tactics, but if once again, we try to see the lens through which we look, we can see that there is far too great an emphasis placed on the future.