Henry Raskob Stewart Saborio
Dr. Sievers
CULF 1318
4/23/16
Patel, Scott
Discussing religion can be very difficult especially when trying to find common ground in order to engage in constructive dialogue. In These pieces by Eboo Patel and Eric Scott the authors share personal experiences of coping with religion around others and in their own lives. Both have very interesting points of view of religion Patel being a Muslim and Scott being a Pagan, two very unrepresented demographics in American culture. Scotts Piece he writes about coming to terms with his uncommon religion in a world dominated by Christianity. Patel is searching for his spirituality, constantly looking for answers and eventually finding them in an unexpected place.
The annotations written on the Eric Scott piece fall into three main categories. The first and largest type of annotation was framing. Many students took pagan terms like Yule Ritual and defined them, Beth Nawoichik wrote that the Yule Ritual was the celebration of the winter solstice in her annotation. Another recurring annotation is Scott’s struggling with fate and uncertainty. Stephanie Martinez highlights the portion where Scott is asking what it would be like if he were born into a different religion. She calls this fundamental questioning of one’s life “sinister”. The last similarity I found in the annotations of Scott is the idea of coping with being an outcast. Many times Scott describes awkward experiences when encountering other religions. In the section about the Bible party William Nieto comments how Scott was able to find and maintain friends with vastly different beliefs as him.
Reading through the annotations posted about Patel’s article, I noticed three main themes which were the realization of how bad the world is once you see it outside of home, that a good community isn’t about religion but about doing good for others, and that sometimes the thing you are searching for you has been with you all along. Arthur Flores talked about how the line where Patel mentions the “other America” is perfect because you get hit with the reality of the world once you leave home for college. Students also discussed the uniqueness of the Catholic worker house. Aaron Simmons mentions how Patel marveled the greatness of the place when he saw the diversity and equality of the people there. Finally, the conclusion most students came up with in their annotations was how sometime what someone is looking so hard for has been with them all along. Stephanie Martinez wrote about she identified with that as she herself and explored other religions but always found herself returning to her own. Patel’s story seems to have hit home to many students who have gone from searching for something and in the end, finding it within them.
Works Cited
Stephanie Martinez’s Annotation