I took a course at Barnard in 1983 called "Religious Ritual"--because I was personally interested in the subject and because I had heard of Elaine Pagels, who normally taught it. Unfortunately, she left Columbia just before the course began. Instead, I had an incredibly wonderful instructor who was visiting from San Fransisco. Little did I realize how much the experience of that class would impact my life, both professionally (as an art historian) and as a citizen of the world. In addition to reading some of the great anthropology texts and theorists, we were required to attend a religious ritual each week and write about it. This assignment found me, among other things, at a Greek Orthodox mass, participating in a Japanese Tea Ceremony, at a second-floor Buddhist shrine in Chinatown observing some chanting and candle-lighting (and suffering many stares), singing and clapping at a storefront church in Harlem on a Sunday morning and enjoying the special warmth of a Friday evening Shabbat dinner, to name some of the experiences. Of all the courses I took while an undergraduate, this one has not only stayed with me, but actually still lives in me the most. My understanding of diverse religious beliefs and their practices has become part of me, as has affirming the need for such ritual in modern life.