A social psychology experiment?!

Years ago, when I was in my mid-twenties, I had returned to college to finish up my BA. I was taking all Psychology classes at a Catholic women's school. I lived off campus with Howard, and we were engaged to be married.

I am a woman but not a Catholic, and it was sometimes very interesting to be in that college population.

I was raised in the Congregational church in Vermont. That's a form of Protestantism, similar to the United Church of Christ. I had very little exposure to Catholicism until I went to this college, and even then, my exposure was limited to the "plain-clothes nuns" who taught some of the classes, and an occasional conversation with one of my classmates about religion.

One Wednesday, I went to the psychology building for my back-to-back psych. classes: Developmental Psych. followed by Statistics, both with the same professor, Dr. Thieman, whom I adored. I got into class a bit early and settled in, watching all of the other students as they arrived. The first girl who came in had a sort of mark on her forehead, like dirt. I noted this and didn't think much about it. Next, more girls came in, all with smudges on their foreheads. Everyone said "Hi" to me normally, and soon the room was full. Dr. Thieman walked in with a smudge on HIS forehead, and I started to wonder what was up.

My true feeling was that they were all in on some fancy social psych. experiment, and that they must be watching me and the few non-smudged people in class to see what we'd do or say. I just tried to ignore it...and soon class was over. Traditionally, Dr. Thieman and I would walk to the Stats class together. I had pretty much resolved to ask him about this social psych. experiment he was heading up, when I heard one of my classmates say something about Ash Wednesday!

I love this story.

I'm still experiencing some of these types of "Oh!" moments, now that I'm attending Bethel, which is a Christian university. I am a Christian, but not of the same denomination as the founders of Bethel, so there are many times when I just plain don't get it. I'll write about one of those times soon, as there's something coming up on campus that illuminates my "difference" from the Bethel mainstream.