Smells and Bells

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 ...

  In class so far we have discussed the different religious connections that can be made through the senses in it's believers, but what about gods?  In Elizabeth Pérez's book Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions  she states that Caribbean gods do have senses, and that they love to experience symbols and gestures. Pérez states that their love of food dictates the ceremonial calendars of religious individuals and families and all of the labor and ritual that is involved. It is a very common thing for people among faiths from around the world to offer food to their gods, but I feel that as Westerners we rarely think about deities or God to experience the senses like we do. Pérez's book opened my eyes to a way of interpreting and understanding gods or God that I have never thought or known of. Although I am unreligious myself I realize that my assumption was that most people thought gods to be otherworldly beings that had no i...

TW: Mental Illness mention, S*xual Assault mention                                            There is no non-emotional way to write this. I wanted to, but I just couldn't. So here is the more emotional version. I have depression. I have anxiety. I have PTSD. All of which have been affecting me greatly. Surprisingly, or at least it's surprising to me, is how smells affect my mental illnesses. I can smell my cologne bottle (CK One), or my hairspray (Paul Mitchell) and those make me feel better. But I can do down into the Young basement and smell that someone has the same detergent as my attacker and it sends me into a crippling panic attack. It's both terrifying and wonderful how much smells can influence feelings of calm, glee, or panic. I can feel good when I go to chase to grab an everything bagel, shove it in the toaster, and schmear cream cheese on it and...

As I am reflecting on this past semester I have been finding myself thinking of the things that I miss about being on campus. I miss being around my friends, even when it would be finals week because doing all this work on my own is very productive but not that fun. At least at Wheaton, I could take a break and take a walk down to Bagels and Cream. I also miss walking around just looking at all the beautiful nature all around campus. I was just talking to my mom about the smell of the flowers on campus this time of year. I just loved walking around and smelling them as well as seeing the blossoms on the trees and "snowing" on the ground. In Green's book The Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature  she talks about how some smells can be relaxing or comforting. I think the smells of campus around this time of year are so comforting when studying for finals. I like being able to go for a walk between assignments and really get to enjoy t...

I was really thinking hard about what I could write about with the 6th sense, so I started by looking for a topic in the Spell of the Sensuous  book and I came across the section on pages 78-79 about animal communications. This made me start thinking about how I communicate with my dogs at home. We teach them tricks and they seem to understand them, but sometimes they just know things without getting any indication from us. For example when one of my family members is sick one of my dogs will not leave that person alone like he has to constantly sitting near them or looking at them. For example, one time I was super sick at Wheaton so I came home for a long weekend, and my dad told me while I was sleeping he was literally standing on my chest looking at me to make sure I was ok. So strange. Java (left) and Diver (right) (Shiba Inu and Beagle Mix Brothers) So last night I had what I decided was a weird 6th sense moment where I was sleeping (It was like 3:30 am so I was dead as...

When I saw that Diana Eck's book seeing the divine image in India 's book had pictures, I found myself sucked into looking at them! I was especially drawn to the images of art in the book because during my senior year of high school I took AP Art History (mostly to have my favorite teacher one more time) and I was shown this whole world of art that I was unaware of and unappreciative of. I will say I did not spend a ton of time looking into Indian art because there was not a ton of that on the exam, but we did talk about the religion represented in art and the Hindu religion did come up. From the Eck Book When I was in this class we took a field trip to the MFA in Boston (you should go if you haven't yet!).  While we were there we looked around for the pieces we were studying, but we were able to check out the whole museum since we had the whole day. While I was there, there was a whole Asian art exhibit and I remember distinctly looking at a piece of art that looked ...

While reading the book Women, the Recited Qur'an and Islamic Music in Indonesia I found myself taking notes of the different commentary on the dancing that goes along with the music. At the beginning of this book, Rasmussen talks about the importance of women in the rituals, but late in the book, she talks about their role in music and dance. Before this semester I did not really have much exposure to dance, but I have always participated in Zumba on Tuesday nights. For this semester I was really looking for a 4th class that wasn't too hard for my senior spring semester, and Julie Searles sent out an email to the Zumba people about this dance class she was teaching. (an academic dance class not like a ballet class!) So I decided to try it out because she said it shouldn't be too hard. So this semester I learned about different ways that dance has made it into American vernacular culture from popular dance styles to the way some people walk! It has actually been really f...

When I was in like 3rd grade my grandmother taught me to knit. I worked on a few projects for like a year, then life happened and I didn't do it for at least 10 years. Then when I was at Wheaton minding my own business my friend texted me that she needed a treasurer for this club she was the president of and would I please help her out. I said sure why not, and suddenly I was the treasurer of the knitting club but I had not knitted in a decade. This is me holding this insanely large ball of super soft yarn. *Picture from @craftwheaton on Instagram* Over the next few weeks, I relearned how to knit and started working on a few projects. (My first one was a MAJOR fail) After a while, I knew the basics and on Sunday nights in the Lyons Den (where we met) I was able to knit while enjoying a milkshake. That was 3 years ago. Since then we have rebranded our club to be the CRAFT club. (Create, Relax, and Familiarize with Textiles) Why am I telling you about this? Well, when I was ...