Smells and Bells

The concept that dreams can be premonitions, messages, warnings, or anything in the realm of the transcendental or paranormal has never been something I even try to understand. Only twice in my life have I experienced or believed in a dream being more than just images concocted by the brain. The first one was my own experience. It was not anything special, just oddly clear and direct in a way. I had the dream when I was in seventh or eighth grade and I remember it perfectly.  I was with my family, somewhere beautiful but unknown to me. We were staying in a lovely house next to a crystal clear, shallow river, surrounded by sort of tropical looking forest. There was a gorgeous green lawn between the river and the house and the sun was shining. Every thing seemed perfect. I was swimming with my family, then they went back to the house, leaving me on my own. When they left, a large, sort of ugly, black fish appeared. It lurked for a while before darting at me and trying to bite my feet...

I have known about religions that are imaginative and image-oriented for a while, mostly by learning about them in school. I learned about how it is normal to pray and worship the gods and goddesses through statues, which as a Christian, I thought was interesting and peculiar. I did not realize until reading Eck's book, that for Hindus, the notion of worshiping an invisible deity is seen as foreign and strange. The gods and goddesses in Hinduism take form in very elaborate and ornate ways so, I guess, it does make sense for them to be represented visually. Vibrant colors and visuals are often associated with Hindu culture and it is translated through the imagery of the gods and goddesses. What I am most interested in when it comes to Hinduism, is how the descriptions of how and when what these gods and goddesses look like came to be.   https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-fzxim   In Protestant Christianity, the idea of imagery and worshiping idols that are supposed t...

This week, in particular, I have been thinking a lot about the importance of my faith and hearing God's word. From experience, I believe that to have religion in your life is so important, especially in times of sorrow, doubt, and fear. While reading Rasmussen's book, I thought about how wonderful it is to hear God's word through music. In the Protestant church we have hymns so I can appreciate the musical religious practices. The emotions that surface while hearing music in a religious setting are intense and can bring on powerful memories. Any time I hear the hymn Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord?) I tear up, no matter what. Listening to religious singing is such a wonderful thing to experience in faith. http://faithisland.org/faith/hearing-the-voice-of-god/ I am currently going through a bit of a rough patch in my personal life and I have been getting a lot of guidance from people. Listening to the advice I am given has been helping so much. My parents, frien...

This reading has probably been one of my favorites so far, not because of the fact that it is about taste necessarily, but because it discusses a kind of food that I enjoy while many others do not. It also discusses it in a wonderfully graphic way which, as someone who has spent a lot of time in many different kitchens, I find very entertaining. The description of Arlene and the elders dissecting the poultry actually made me hungry while it probably did the exact opposite for other readers. I have a love for eating the innards of animals, specifically poultry. I am not the kind of person who would eat brains, that freaks me out, but I am the kind of person who loves haggis. Haggis, for those of you who don't know, is a sheep's heart, liver, and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and boiled. Maybe I like it because I am Scottish but not all Scottish people actually like haggis. I...

I wasn't sure what to write about for this reading until yesterday. After class, I reread the last section of the reading from Tuesday and it gave me a lot to think about. The sentence "The aroma of victory and the stench of death, decay, and defeat are identical in terms of smell but represent opposite values..." struck a chord in me because of the atrocities currently occurring in Ukraine. What do bomb sites smell like, or burning bodies, or homes that have been abandoned by the people who once celebrated life there.  https://nnc.com.ng/ One of my closest friend's entire family is from Ukraine and I remember what she told me after coming home from a three week long trip to visit her family there many years ago. Apparently, it is customary in Ukraine for visitors to be fed a lot and they cannot say no or else it is considered extremely impolite. My friend laughed as she remembered how much food was being given to them everywhere they went and how the "offering...

I feel like touch is one of the more interesting senses because I think I am consciously aware of it the least.  We are constantly aware of sight and sounds as we go about our days. Taste and scent are something we experience and enjoy during daily meals or snacks. I think I am most aware of those senses, but when it comes to touch, I don't think about it as much. For example, I am currently sitting in Emerson dining hall listening to the voices as they get louder and more annoying. I see my computer screen and I’m thinking about the harmful blue light from the screen on my retinas. I am tasting and smelling my breakfast and tea. However, I did not think about the feeling of the things around me until I began writing this. When I pick up the hot cup and if the liquid inside burns my mouth, I will process the pain, and for a moment the extreme awareness of the sense of touch will hit me, then subside again. When I walk outside and the cold air consumes me I am aware of it but I will...

After reading the first chapter of Ackerman's Natural History of the Five Senses, the thing that resonated with me the most was the section about anosmia. Today in class I spoke about how taste is my favorite scent, but after reading this, I realized that taste is not the same without scent. One of the chefs that my mother knows owns a restaurant in Providence and his food is absolutely explosive with flavor. It is some of the best food I have ever had and I cannot imagine not being able to taste it to its fullest. His is the only food that I have ever described as being explosive with flavor, no matter what it is. This section also struck a chord in me because of a young girl I babysit who has no sense of smell. It does not seem to bother her, but then again, she has never known what it is like to have a sense of smell, unlike the man Ackerman wrote about. When she grows up and eventually lives on her own she will get a service dog to detect gas leaks or smoke. This ...