September 8, 2006 @ 5:31 am | Filed under: School Stuff

The professor – sixtiesh, with gray thinning hair, and cobalt blue eyes (think Paul Newman) – walked into the room and strode to the desk.

Dressed in stone-colored Dockers that had been starched to within an inch of their life, brown leather loafers, and a blue polo shirt that almost exactly matched his eyes, he took a seat behind the desk, slowly picked up a stainless-steel coffee mug, proceeded to take a sip, and…

…just quietly stared at us.

For l-o-n-g minutes.

"G’morning." Finally, something. "My name is Dr. Kirk. Yes, like the Starship Enterprise. So if I levitate out of here, you’ll know what happened."

And that, folks, was the introduction to my first college class last week. Comparative Religion, the course I had chosen to satisfy the 3 hour humanities credit I need for my degree plan.

I pulled out my notebook, jotted down his name, office hours, and phone numbers as he began to rattle them off.

"And here is my email address," he walked to the whiteboard and hastily scrawled, "gypsyprof@…"

Oh, boy…I knew I’d better buckle up. My religion teacher’s screen name is…gypsy?

I glanced to my right where three boys and one girl seem nonplussed by the professor’s opening statements. The guys were easily young enough to be my own sons and, judging by the way they slouched in their chairs, I have no doubt they thought this class would be an easy A.

Or a good laugh.

Or maybe both.

The girl, tall with dark, dyed hair and multiple tatoos, stared with rapt attention at Gypsyprof. I tried to look casual as I perused her assortment of body art. I thought I was a fairly hip mom who’d seen quite a lot, but judging by the dress and expressions of some of the kids seated around me, I had a feeling I was about to learn a whole lot more.

"Okay," Dr. K walked to the front of the classroom and leaned against his desk, crossing one finely starched leg in front of the other. "Let’s go around the room. Tell us your name, your religious affiliation, and what role religion has played in your life."

And….we’re off.

Row by row, we went down the line. Four Baptist, two of no particular religious belief, two Catholic, one Atheist, three non-denominational, one Mormon, one Hindu, one Methodist, one Muslim, one Pentecostal (um…that’d be me).

I was hastily jotting down these stats in my blogging notebook (told ya I had one!) when Tatoo Girl startled me.

"My name is "A". My parents named me after a character in a Sci-Fi story."

I stared at the Panda bear tatoo on her left arm and wondered if there was any particular meaning that just below it rested a sun. Shouldn’t the sun be above…

I digress…

"As far as my religious background," she paused and I waited to hear. I was thinking, I don’t know…Scientology, Buddahism…

"I’m Quaker."

Say what????

She was serious and takes her religion very seriously. That taught me something I should have learned well many years ago. Never, ever judge a book by its cover. Because the words inside just might surprise you.

I had no sooner recovered from A’s revelation before we moved on to meeting the next person. Then the next, then the next.

"Uh, yeah." A guy in the rear of the class spoke up, his voice deep and his words s-l-o-w. "I never really had a religious upbringing. Uh, in the past few years I’ve been, uh, kind of, uh, checking things out for myself."

I have to say that at this point my heart truly went out to all the kids that surrounded me. These were impressionable eighteen and nineteen year olds, the very same ages as my own sons, that were obviously interested enough in all the possibilities that religion affords us to be sitting in a classroom looking for answers.

I felt myself so torn. On the one hand so moved by their longing that they’ve begun a search and, on the other hand, afraid that they might not find those needed answers inside the confines of this classroom.

"So, uh, anyway," the boy with the deep, slow drawl continued, "I baptised myself, uh, in a waterfall in Hawaii, uh, last year."

And that was my introduction to Comparative Religion, my eight-thirty class.

I’m thinking that with a full cup of coffee in front of me and these kids surrounding me I’ll be on the edge of my seat for this one!