Smells and Bells

Screenshot from Smells & Bells S'20 virtual banquet FYS F '17 Cooking Together As I was reading Rosie's reflection, especially after reading almost all of the class's reflections, I saw that nearly all  of you noted  the one thing the would change would be to have the banquet in person,. But then  a strange thought occurred to me.  Of all the times I've had classes do this "ritual scorecard" after a banquet, including our FYS, your reflections on this virtual banquet  seemed to come closest to expressing the "educational goals" I had in mind by having us make a ritual banquet together.  For one thing, more people agreed that we achieved the right balance between scriptedness and improvisation, more people felt it was inclusive, and people seemed to have a clearer sense of the closure it provided.  Which suggests that just as there were costs of not being able to cook and eat together, so there may also have been costs fr...

I've found peace in small amounts throughout my life. The type of peace that allows me to think about nothing and everything all at once. I used to only find this kind of peace through small amounts of meditation each day, but with this class and the current situation that we're all facing I've found this time increasing. When I would meditate I would mainly focus on touch. The clothes touching my body, my feet in my shoes touching the ground, and the air against my face. I would feel this heightened sense of touch as I took a minute or two at a time to think about nothing except what I was feeling. I started this meditation practice because with classes, work, swim practice, and dance practice I often found myself overwhelmed, and even when I wouldn't be doing anything, my mind would be racing. This caused me a lot of stress and exhaustion because even when I stopped I was never really stopping. So in between, I found moments to take a break. When walking to class I ...

I've always had a weird relationship with my dreams. I've always felt that my dreams are trying to tell me something either about me or happenings around me. When I would have recurring dreams it always felt like there was some sort of force trying to show me something. When I was little I used to have recurring dreams where I would wake up in the middle of the night and my house would be on fire. I had these dreams for years and they even began to impact me in real life. When we would have fire drills at school and when the smoke detector went off at my house because something was burning I could feel my heart racing. At first, I just thought it was an irrational fear of mine like bugs and the dark and the basement, but I would never have dreams of these other things. Fast forward to when I was in 6th grade: during class, I got called into the principal's office. I go in not knowing what to expect and the principal tells me that my house had caught on fire and burned dow...

There are so many different forms of touch that each insinuate entirely different things. There are so many types of relationships we have not just with people but with animals and objects and the earth. These relationships each serve different emotional purposes and some may hold more value to us than others. Constance Classen's "The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch" goes in-depth on the evolution of touch in our society. Classen began with creation and how touch was considered a lower sense associated with feminity. Touch then evolved into a necessity that connected people socially and then finally to something that was not necessary because we as humans were becoming more autonomous after the middle ages. Throughout the book, Classen discusses different forms of touch and their value to society and individuals over time. Touch, as Classen mentioned, evolved into a way of greeting as well as a way to express intimacy between loved ones. This intimacy also co...

When we're in preschool or kindergarten we all learn what colors are and what their names are. We might have been shown flashcards with the colors on them or learned to associate colors with specific objects like how an apple is red and how grass is green. Growing up we are meant to assume that the color we see is the color that everyone sees, but how can we know? How can we know that my green isn't your blue and someone else's red? We agree on what colors are based on what we're taught not knowing if this is anything close to what others are seeing. Supposedly we don't all see colors exactly the same (Ackerman, 252), but it's not as if what we see is wildly different from what others see. We see colors in different shades and at different levels of vibrancy. What I found really interesting from what Ackerman said about color is that "emotions and memories we associate with certain colors also stain the world we see" (253). After she makes this s...

Music is something that we surround ourselves with every day. I can honestly say that in my life and in my experiences, music is everywhere at all times. Music is present when I swim my routines in the pool, as I walk to class, when I sing in the shower, and it's present as I write this blog post. Music can change my mood in an instant and it can amplify any mood that I'm feeling. According to Diane Ackerman, "Music speaks so powerfully that many musicians and theorists think it may be an actual language" (209). Ackerman later says that the lyrics or words assigned to a song have nothing to do with the emotions that we feel from the music. Lyrics are something separate from the music itself that sort of serves as an enhancement for what is already conveyed through musical language. What I've found really relevant from what Ackerman says about music in my own life is the difference in music preference from person to person. Preference can depend on where we...