The end of a good meal

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Finishing this course to me feels like the end of a good meal. This course was the first time I was able to talk about things I've grown up listening to or talking about, in an academic setting. To me this has been an extremely rich experience. Though I wouldn't necessarily call myself religious, I have always maintained the belief that though we as a global community adopt and practice various religions, we are connected through the faith and love shared for the divine. This course not only worked to consolidate that belief, but enabled me to look at the universality of religion through tangible everyday nuances. I see us going over each of the sense one by one as though we were going through a multi course meal, savoring the peculiarities and of each. Whether it may be Ackerman talking about the ever-present effect smells have and have had on human societies, discussing how certain smells like incense or perfume have specific religious connotations, to Eck's discourse of how religion is propagated through the kitchen via food and the taste it carries; have taken the blinkers off my eyes.


The texts we read have formed bridges between religious teaching and the way humans today live their lives, and that I feel is my greatest take away. Understanding how religion shapes the manner in which humans interact with each other, and how it has changed over the course of history, was a prominent part of this course for me, and as we are at its end, I somehow feel more in tuned to my own senses and the perception of what I sense. My hunger to know about these faculties has been satisfied, through engaging conversations, the introduction of novel ideas and by playing with my own senses. As we come to the end of this semester, and its time for me to take my leave from this table, I yearn for another good meal, one that can tantalize all of my senses, just like this one. 






Comments

  1. Karina NovaisMay 13, 2022 at 11:10 AM

    The images you chose for this last blog posts are adorable! I also love how you compared this class to a last meal, it definitely did feel that way with all the work and reading we've done this semester being the "kitchen prep" and our final banquet being "the meal". This class has definitely left me with a full belly filled with new perspectives and more enlightened mind!

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  2. Hana MemisevicMay 13, 2022 at 1:20 PM

    I love the way you compared this course to a good meal, it's a wonderful metaphor that really showcases what this course felt like. I resonate with a lot of what you had to say here, and appreciate how you described the experience of being in our classroom.

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