Stories

The Department of Religious Studies, following our long-standing practice, had made plans for our Annual Spring Reception to be held on Thursday, May 21st this year in Adobe Lodge. However, due to the closing of campus necessitated by Santa Clara County’s shelter-in-place public health emergency, we had to honor our graduating majors and minors via a virtual reception, conducted online using the Zoom teleconferencing app. By this point in the quarter, all of us were very used to using Zoom, since most of us were using it on a regular basis for classes, advising, and other meetings. While we all would have much preferred being able to gather in person in Adobe, as usual, the reception went surprisingly well, giving us the opportunity to honor our graduates in a new and engaging way.

David Gray, serving as MC, welcomed all the participants and then we segued to our faculty speaker, Paul Schutz, who spoke on the topic of “The Wisdom of Finitude.” His talk was insightful and delivered in a spirited and humorous manner. We are fortunate that he agreed to share it in this issue, so feel free to read it if you are interested. We then welcomed the new members of Theta Alpha Kappa, presented awards, and honored our graduating majors and minors.

The last and most important highlight of the evening was the reflections of the graduating majors and minors who spoke of their experiences in the department. They thanked faculty who they found particularly inspiring and spoke of their intellectual and spiritual growth as they made the transition from new students to seniors on the verge of graduation. David Gray then brought the event to a close with a Buddhist-inspired benediction.