Smells and Bells

Overall, this class made me think about my senses that I had been desensitized to. It was comprised of so many different things that I take for granted and opened my eyes more to the world around me. I think one of my greatest takeaways from this class is the fact of how much all of the five main senses, as well as the sixth sense, play parts in religion. I absolutely loved the first book we read, because she talked about all of the senses in different magnitudes and I felt as though Ackerman was able to make every reader relate or understand one more thing than they knew before about a sense. This class I feel as though it made me think about the things I take for granted like my sense of taste. Before this class, I feel as though I just never recognized the impacts it has on my every day to day life. And being apart of the tasting group, making the cookies, I think it also made the impact a bit more prevalent. This class made me aware of how I find comfort in the landfill and makes ...

One of my main memories from Church when I was younger was singing the song “Lamb of God.” In Church, this song is always sung at the time where we give the sign of peace by shaking hands, hugging, or even giving a sign of peace to a person who maybe a couple of rows away. This song was a huge part of my life, and for the longest time, I used to run around my house and sing that song while giving peace to each of my stuffed animals. Whenever I hear this song being played it gives me comfort and brings up the memories of me swinging in my backyard singing it, and going to church with my family. This song fills my heart and I feel loved. Though Anne Rasmussen talks about noises in Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia, and about the ranges of loved to hated noises, which can be applied to songs and noises all around you that are picked up by our ears. She talks about how sound pollution affects America much like regular pollution, and how there are measures being ...

Taste is one of my favorite of the senses just because I feel as though it is something that can make us feel at one with each other. It is one of the senses in which we are able to bond while making a dish, or sitting down eating enjoying not only the food but the company with the people who you are with. Elizabeth Perez wrote a book, Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions, where she talks about and touches upon the importance of religious cooking. She also talks about the importance of what religions do in order to prepare certain foods or certain foods/ drinks for ceremonies. Growing up in a Catholic setting we used to bless the body of Christ and the blood of Christ before we would be able to accept it. You would bring these items down the aisle and then the priest would have us join in prayer to bless the items. We use communion in the church to be able to have and feel the presence of God. We talked about this in class where some ...

In the book The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, by David Abram one quote stuck out with me the most which was “...along with the other animals, the stones, the trees, and the clouds, we ourselves are characters within a huge story that is visibly unfolding all around us, participants within the vast imagination, or Dreaming, of the world.” I look at this quote and I completely agree with it. We are characters in which have our own stories that intertwine with other people’s stories. I feel as though the best way in which to describe how I felt as though it was already written and almost as if it was the sixth sense was the mother’s day after my aunt had passed away in April. This was the first holiday in which we all came together and tried to celebrate, but the mood was very somber at this time. I went out and played with the neighbor kids and we talked to this older woman who was tending to her garden and told us to all pick a flower. I pick...

Two Golden Retrievers standing nose to tail.  A dining room table.  A door. One and a half Mail Boxes 1.8288 Meters Six Feet apart. Six feet apart from friends and loved ones.  For someone like me, the sense of touch is one of my love languages. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, I would show my love through hugs, high- fives, holding hands, and even more hugs. Touch is a nonverbal use of showing how much someone loves or cares for an individual. With the absence of touch, I feel almost empty and not as full of life as I was before this pandemic started. I feel as though I am missing a big part of me. Diane Ackerman speaks about this in her book, A Natural History of the Senses , about “how when we lose touch (the dentist gives you a shot of novocaine; an arm or leg falls asleep from lowered blood supply), we feel odd and alien” (Ackerman 82). Now I know Ackerman was referring to novocaine or the lowered blood supply, but with the loss of human touch for lo...

Growing up I was always surrounded by a mess of different scents, some perceived as good, and some perceived as putrid. One scent that will stick with me for a long time that many people hate, is the smell of the rotting decomposing discarded trash at a landfill. My father, when I was younger, was a carpenter, and on more than one occasion he would bring me to a job site to help him clean up. On those days, we would get to go to “Trash Mountain”. I remember at first I did not like the smell, not in the slightest, and I would put my nose in my shirt as we cleaned out the truck bed of the various pieces of rotted wood, drywall, and broken windows.  However, over the years, I have come to find comfort in the stench. To the point if I am having a bad day, I make sure to take Exit 7 on I-295 to pass the landfill. This smell that is perceived as bad has connected my father and me from when I was a child till today. In Diane Ackerman book, A Natural History of the Senses, she talks...