On being a writer from another culture - article

Just a quick one from me as baby sleeps - have just read this article by Karen Lord on the Huffington Post.  I love how it 'illuminates' culture, and writing as a person from a culture (as we all are), but equating it to light - "Culture resembles light. It is only invisible in a vacuum (the deep darkness of space), and it reveals itself by illuminating whatever it touches (the brightness of dust motes in a ray of sunlight)."  It goes on to point out that stereotypes, while comforting, familiar and easy to lapse into (oh how I know that!), shortchanges by not revealing anything new.  And I love how it concludes by asking us as writers to choose between "a closed and clearly-labelled box or an open window" as a way of approaching our writing.