Elizabeth's Lens

Growing up in a rural Virginian culture has undoubtedly has shaped my lenses. I went to school with some African Americans, but I was almost never in contact with any other ethnic minority until college. As a result of this and several other factors, I became fascinated with Asian cultures and religions. I think looking toward something so foreign for new insight grew out of having the religion I grew up with as well. My parents took me to the Episcopal Church every Sunday where I learned to recite the same prayers every week, and to be polite to the socially elite members of my town who made their appearances there as well. By the end of high school, I was dissatisfied with the so-called spiritual life my parents had handed me, and decided I needed to look elsewhere for that kind of fulfillment. By no means do I mean to insult Episcopalians or my parents; I simply did not derive the same satisfaction from the Sunday ritual as they did. So when I went to college, I took as many classes having to do with Asia as I could, as I was convinced that that part of the world held answers for me that I had not yet found. I especially enjoyed my Chinese literature class, as well as one called “The Sacred Quest” in which we studied Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese religious quest rituals. The kind of thinking and writing I encountered in these classes was so different than any other I had come across, and I found its simplicity and lucidity incredibly appealing. I remember being awe-struck when I finished reading Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, and feeling like I had tapped into a gold mine of new perspective. By taking these classes, I was exposed to works from an entirely new genre of literature, and I began to understand a vastly different school of thought.

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