Isla Vista, California, March, 2078, Monday…

Maria knocked timidly on the professor's office door. As a first semester freshman at UC Santa Barbara, this was her first time to visit a professor during office hours in order to ask for help.

Father Bernardo Reyes opened the door slowly.

"Yes?"

"My name is Maria Gonzales. I'm in your Polisci 101 course and I have a few questions."

The Jesuit smiled kindly at her. He was at least three times her age. She was nervous. He opened the door wide.

"Of course, Miss Gonzales. Please come in." He scooped a pile of books off an old chair that had clearly seen better days. "Since I'm a visiting professor from Fordham, they didn't exactly give me the most luxurious office. Sit down, please."

She sat down, notebook and pen poised, as if she were about to interview the Pope.

"I first want to say I find your course interesting, but you don't seem to be following the syllabus."

"Ah, you don't understand professors, then. The syllabus is a department approved list of topics that must be covered. How the professor covers them widely varies. I tend to assign a lot of reading as background to the topics. Some of the topics in the syllabus I will then elaborate on."

"So … what will I be tested on, then?"

"Everything and nothing. The readings and my lectures are to stimulate thought about certain issues. My exam questions are more oriented to determining if you have really thought about them."

She jotted this down dutifully, then looked at him expectantly.

"Miss Gonzales, I admire your courage in admitting you need help. Most students don't admit it until it's too late. But just what is it that you don't understand? You have thought about the topics you have read and heard about in class, haven't you?"

"I read and hear, but nothing resonates," she complained. "I just can't relate to any of this."

"All right, let's take an example. Have you thought about why the founding fathers put into the Constitution that there would be no state religion? You don't believe they were atheists, do you?"

"No, of course not. I guess they just wanted to keep religion out of politics."

"But if everybody at the time was either Protestant or Catholic, why not just make Christianity the state religion?"

"Because there might be other religions later on, maybe?"

"I seriously doubt that they had good enough crystal balls to predict what a melting pot we would become. Your first answer was better. You let me distract you. Focus on that first answer. Why would we want to keep religion out of politics? Or politics out of religion, for that matter?"