Today is the famed Cheese Market in Alkmaar. People will come from all over to watch blocks of cheese get weighed on balancing scales and carried out to the square for purchase by nattily dressed folks. They’ve been carrying on this way since 1642 or some such…at least that’s what it says in the 400-year-old bricks inlayed in front of the scale housing. I can’t imagine that is pure hype.

While the locals tend to roll their eyes at all the tourists and ho-hum this weekly event, deep down it’s truly a source of civic pride. To be KNOWN for something, to have an identity in something, to have others ascribe worth to your something, must be ingrained in us all.

I grew up in the Deep South, U.S.A. It’s college football, and we do it better than anyone else (of course that “barefoot & illiterate thing” is one of those skeletons we’ll just keep in the closet for today, okay?). I currently live in Dallas, Republic of Texas. They still hang their 10-gallon, boot wearin,’ gun-totin’ image on that whole Alamo/Wild West attitude, even if it’s somewhat cartoonish. New Yorkers, San Franciscans, Navajos, African-Americans, (insert your own subgroup here)…we all have our somethings.

And you know what? How we view ourselves is a powerful motivator. It affects our behavior. It affects how others perceive us. So…here’s to all the “somethings” you guys have. Enjoy them, celebrate them, and revel in them…even if the other locals roll their eyes and gripe about their effects. Happy Cheese Market Day, ever’boddah!