Katie Kelter's Blog

Reading about Goddess pilgrimage in Goddess Pilgrims: Inscribing the Body Through Sacred Travel by Kathryn Rountree was extremely interesting to me. The excitement and passion of those who went on these types of pilgrimages was inspiring. Although many could consider these people tourists, I definitely see them as pilgrims from what the personal experiences show.

In the passage, one woman “had such an ache to hold some of the old goddesses in [her] hands to feel their magic and love them gently.” The experience was not just that of a tourist for this woman, it was one of spirituality. Other experiences that these pilgrims felt were also moving and spiritual. If we refer to Eliade’s model of pilgrimage and say that the purpose of a pilgrimage is to move to a sacred center, I’m sure these women would definitely claim to have been on a pilgrimage.

Visiting sites of significance for any religion can be a powerful experience in any religion. I don’t think we should consider Goddess pilgrimage simply as tourism, rather by looking at the experiences of these pilgrims, it is clear to me that visiting sites important to Goddess religion is truly a pilgrimage in the religious sense.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s article Offensive Play, we see a rhetorical situation take place. A rhetorical situation consists of three parts: an exigence, or an urgent problem at hand, an audience, or people who are able to act upon what the author is saying, and constraints, or anything that hinders the solving of the problem.

The exigence is that football players are getting seriously injured by their everyday impacts. The symptoms in this type of injury may not show up in the athlete right away, but after years of impact, their personalities, memory, and even everyday functioning can be impaired. This is an urgent problem because the livelihoods of the players are at stake.

The audience is the players themselves who have the power to limit the amount of time they spend playing for the NFL. Others who are able to take action by editing policies and improving the safety of the game. Though fans may not be the most obvious audience in this article, they can also take action by sympathizing more with players who have suffered concussions and not giving players who have been injured a hard time for taking time to recover.

Constraints in this situation are the fact that fans expect NFL athletes to play even if they have suffered an injury. Another huge constraint in this situation is the nature of the game of football. Contact cannot be avoided, and players are bound to suffer blows to the head.

Analyzing the rhetorical situation in this case is slightly depressing. It seems that there is not much that can be done in order to prevent the kind of damage the article discussed if football is continued to be played as we know it.

In today’s class, we read about and discussed Paganist Feminism religion. We analized the text we were given, Thealogy: Discourse on the Goddess, by Melissa Raphael, in a way that we might learn aspects about Goddess religion that we find in other religions. We found that Goddess religion is largely based on myth, but not text. Those who follow Goddess religion participate in rituals such as seasonal festivals, and conversion to the religion is not in a moment, but is a process. Paganist Feminism religion is supported by friendships, education, and local groups. The Goddess is the ultimate reality of the religion and the belief system is based heavily on feminism and cosmic harmony.

Knowing these things about Paganist Feminism religion, we can make assumptions about the participants’ values. It is likely that Goddess religion followers care about the earth and living things. They most likely care about the way human behavior affects nature. Since feminism is part of the belief system, Pagan Feminists probably care about the equality of people, especially relating to gender.

Though most of us in class are not Pagan Feminists, I suggest that the values of the religion be shared by us. It is important for us as a society to care about the earth and equality for all people. Having the skills to analyze the values of a religion is important not only in understanding others, but taking their values and possibly applying them to our own lives.

I did not necessarily choose Morningside because it is a Liberal Arts College, but I do see benefits in going to a Liberal Arts College. The goal of a Liberal Arts education is to make the student into a well-rounded person. Without going to a Liberal Arts College, there are many classes that I may not have considered taking, such as Intro to Religion. I have enjoyed this class and it has provided me with information that I would have otherwise been ignorant of. Although there are some Liberal Arts requirements that I would rather go without fulfilling, I believe that even learning about subjects that do not interest me, I will become more informed, educated, and approachable person.

I do not think that Liberal Arts should be the deciding factor in choosing a college for any student. Rather, I think it is important to look at the success of students in the field you are interested in pursuing or the type of atmosphere you are looking for in a school.