7.29.2010: Irvine, CA: Stephanie Gold Schutz (1984)

I had thought that I was the only ESA alumna to head off to Scripps College, however, there is one more, and she is Stephanie Gold. This isn’t in the records, so ESA, you need to update! After another drive through crazy southern California freeway traffic, we made it to Irvine and were met by Stephanie and three of her five children: Rachel, Sam, and Angela (10, 9, and 16 years-old respectively). The whole family is vegetarian, and there doesn’t seem to be any real or latent rebellion, which is pretty cool. Stephanie’s husband has studied quite a few religions, and even spent an intensive two years learning Sanskrit so that he could read the Bhagavad Gita or “Song of God.” At some point during this time he decided to forgo consumption of animals (and even of keeping animals in cages, so no pets for the Schutz family, unless they end up living in the country with a huge yard). Eventually he decided to convert to Mormonism; he told us over dinner that he really liked the philosophy that the Mormons have, and he quoted this to us:

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

He really liked the last part—that anything that was lovely, etc., could be incorporated into their lives.

We ended up having lunch and dinner with the Shutzes, all which was vegetarian and delicious. Lunch was polenta with a tomato sauce and a salad with blueberries, and dinner had an Indian theme. During the time before and in-between, we chatted and dad gossiped, and we took a walk with the kids to the lake to feed the ducks. They had bought their house when the market was at its peak and weren’t too happy about its devaluation, but apparently their neighborhood is pretty religiously diverse and they get to have interesting conversations with the neighbors. We drove back to Lily’s house full and happy.