Nuns

[emony]

So I'm watching The Sound of Music on DVD at the moment, and it set me to thinking. In season 5, after Riley leaves, Buffy briefly considers becoming a nun. It's mostly for humour value, but I was thinking, it's different for blokes, but I know I used to want to be a nun, and my mother went through a time when she wanted to be a nun. Is it a general girl thing, or are we just weird? Does everyone, or a lot of people anyway, have a time when they think nun-hood sounds like a pretty good plan. And if we do, why is it? Is it only after we've been dumped, when life's a bit difficult, or are there things about life as a nun that appeal to us all? Hmm. Late-night thought.

In other news, I joined Farnham library today, discovered they have *no* Dalziel and Pascoe books in the entire library, so instead went to WH Smiths and bought one. Hehe.

ETA: Oh, also, we watched Dragonheart 2 tonight, which was a). really crap and b). really gay. Ah, so amusing! *g*

Comments

[darchildre.livejournal.com]

my "i'd like to be a nun" thoughts tend to happen when i'm overwhelmed by the whole "must figure out something to do with my life" thoughts. the idea of a place where there's structured activity, where someone else tells you what to do and you do it and are taken care of is very appealing at those times.

of course, then i realize that i'd have to give up fanfic and the computer and those thoughts go away.

[emony.livejournal.com]

Exactly. As soon as I remembered that I'd have to spend all my time helping the poor and praying, I thought better of it. But it's nice to know that I wasn't the only one who thought about it.

[darchildre.livejournal.com]

nope, not the only one. me and mom have both done it.

'course, mom has slightly more of an excuse as she was actually raised catholic as opposed to being crazy methodist/pagan/whatever-suits-my-fancy-right-now like me.

[emony.livejournal.com]

Hm, I wonder. bitterbyrden suggested that it might be a Catholic-related thing, since she and her mother both had the same thought re: nun-dom, and they were both brought up Catholics, and my mother and I are also from a Catholic family. Weird.

[darchildre.livejournal.com]

hmm. 's entirely possible. i wasn't raised catholic (both of my parents converted to methodism before i was born) but i've been fascinated by catholicism for a very long time. so it's very likely that's a factor.

[akire-yta.livejournal.com]

well, to add another perspective, the closest i came to Catholocism was either my Anglicans run highschool or watching Dogma enough times to memorize the dialogue.

I'm actually a practicing pagan, and I STILL thought nun-hood was cool. I remember saying to someone that we need pagan nuns.

She asked if clothing would be optional in my pagan nunnery, and whether we'd share grounds with a pagan monastery, and that kinda ended the conversation ;)

[emony.livejournal.com]

Pagan nuns would be cool, regardless of whether they shared grounds with pagan monks yo.

[niennah.livejournal.com]

I don't think I ever wanted to be a nun, but I think I remember considering it before coming to that conclusion, so obviously the thought did occur to me. It was while we were being taught by that freaky mad-long-prayers nun I told you about, I think she inspired my one religious phase. I was ten and therefore still quite impressionable.

I come from a very Catholic background, obviously, and yes, I imagine it's quite a lot to do with that. Unless Buddhists think of becoming Buddhist nuns?

I wonder do males consider priesthood in the same way?

[emony.livejournal.com]

Yes, that mad nun. I imagine she would be offputting. I don't know about Buddhists, or any other religion, but I don't think men consider the priesthood or monk-hood in the same way women think about becoming nuns. But then, I could be wrong.

[niennah.livejournal.com]

It just occurs to me that men might think that way about the army. V interesting.

Yes, she was offputting mostly because she wore brown. The Presentations have it easy with their black and navy. Imagine being forced to constantly wear a rather vile and not at all fashionable shade of brown.

[emony.livejournal.com]

Huh, yeah. That's a definite possibility. Mind you, I've considered the Air Force too, so who knows.

My mother's school uniform was brown. I think it explains a lot.

[whatthebananas.livejournal.com]

My mother considered becoming a nun and often has "Have you ever considered becoming a nun? I used to want to be one, once..." moments, at which time it's best to back away slowly. I used to be best friends with a nun when I was little though. Well, best friends in the way that 4 year olds are when adults are nice to them...

[emony.livejournal.com]

Aw :)

[whatthebananas.livejournal.com]

Also, I swear a freakishly large percentage of el-jayers are either Catholic or from a Catholic background.

[emony.livejournal.com]

I wonder why that is. Maybe we're just in need of somewhere to offload our repressed guilt a bit more than people from other religions ;)

[tirica.livejournal.com]

I was in a catholic church and a few of my teachers were nuns I remember, even as a little kid, thinking OMG! how on earth could you ever consider this a possibility for life!! Same goes for my religion teacher who was the school's priest, he was young and kind of handsome so we asked him one day why the hell.. it scared me that for religion and god you'd want to *throw away* so much good stuff in life.. as you see catholic church does nothing for really being religious.. not for me anyway.. I just don't see it.

[emony.livejournal.com]

Interesting. So maybe being closer to the reality put you off, whereas for people for whom it was just a vague idea it seemed more attractive. I know that one I actually knew some real nuns, I thought much less of the idea of being one myself.

[tirica.livejournal.com]

Now that you say this.. who knows maybe I would have turned out all religious and stuff had I been on other schools.. hmmm but nah better this way *snicker*

[niennah.livejournal.com]

it scared me that for religion and god you'd want to *throw away* so much good stuff in life

It depends on what you consider 'throwing away', really. People do make the choice, and many priests and nuns I've ever heard discuss it find their choice of life enriching, not impoverishing. It's just a question of priorities.

[tirica.livejournal.com]

Yes well that's why I put it in ** because of course it's a question of priorities. I just don't see God wanting any person not to have a family, not to enjoy things nuns and priests just can't. Be that sex, normal clothes be that whatever. They lead a life that sometimes is far away from reality in my view.

That said I should add I do not believe in God, though I do not say it's not possible he/she exists we'll see when we die... or not, what I do not believe in at all is any kind of religion because I think it restricts more than anything else.

But I do understand that for some people it is the perfect choice, and I believe that for them it really can be enriching. I just don't see it for myself.

[packmentality.livejournal.com]

I have never considered becoming a nun. Nor did I ever want to be a ballerina, housewife, or princess. Though, I have considered becoming an astronaut, a firefighter, and an FBI agent. Should I be worried?

I also thought that Dragonheart 2 was very very gay. But, I liked it that way.

[emony.livejournal.com]

I never wanted to be an astronaut or a fireperson, but I did want to be a lawyer and a psychologist and a film director. I never wanted to be a ballerina though. I hated ballet. I only ever wanted to be a princess because they had the coolest hats (tall cone-shaped ones with silk bits), and I often wish, even now, that I was a housewife because having a job is *hard*. I wouldn't worry *G*

I liked it that way too. I had to refrain from making comments about how Francis, or whatever his name was in that film, was being a total bitch, cheating on the dragon with the king's advisor who wanted him to come and live in the castle with him so he could give him personal tuition in how to 'sword fight'. *cough cough* And all that "giving him my heart" stuff? Come on, man, at least make it a little bit hard to see the slash! ;)

[packmentality.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a psychologist and a film director too! But those are much more recent career fantasies.

I'm oddly relieved that I'm not the only one who saw the Geoff/Drake slash. Thought I was going insane for a while...

[emony.livejournal.com]

Was that the kid's name? It was totally there, yo. The whole film was about their love affair, without ever actually explicitly saying so, but it clearly was. They met, fell in love and first sight, the kid took the dragon out to try new things, then that wasn't enough so he tried to get the dragon to change (ie. learning to breath fire). Then he met someone new, and the dragon was all, "omg why don't you love me anymore? Is he better than me? Why are you spending all your time with him?" And the kid was like, "god, don't crowd me! I'm going out for a beer!" And then the kid realised that his fling-guy was Not All That and actually just wanted to use him to screw over the dragon, and he remembered all the reasons why he loved the dragon in the first place. Although it all still came down to the dragon in the end, as the dragon saved his life by, effectively, marrying him. Because, let's face it, that's what it was. "Sharing his heart"? Come on. And in the final scene, they were happy again, and 'flying', oh what a subtle metaphor. So yeah, I saw it *g*

[packmentality.livejournal.com]

Dude... I love you. :-)

[emony.livejournal.com]

Lol! Thank you :)

[niennah.livejournal.com]

Wuh! I'm sorry, I drooled all over your icon.

For a while I wanted to be a doctor but I could never develop the handwriting. And even six years of ballet could never fool me into wanting to be a ballerina... hello to the arthritis.

[packmentality.livejournal.com]

*wipes off icon* I forgive you. ;-)

I think I could do doctor handwriting. I have third-grader handwriting, and it's not really that different.

[odycee.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be an astronaut too. Much better than a princess!

[packmentality.livejournal.com]

I still want to be an astronaut. They send anthropologists into space right? Dr. Jackson does it all the time. :-P

[odycee.livejournal.com]

They totally send anthropologists into space - look, I've even got an icon dedicated to it! Heh. Going into space is definitely at the top of my 'impossible goals in life' list. I could be an exobiologist! Well, I could if we discover alien life...

[odycee.livejournal.com]

I often proclaim that I'm going to become a nun - in fact I remember a conversation last week in which I said it. But I don't think I've ever really wanted to be one because a)not catholic, b)the whole having to be religious thing and c)having to live like a nun. Although I'll admit, the uncomplicatedness of being a nun is an appealing thing. No big life decisions to make, no thinking about relationships (or the lack of)...

[emony.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think those are the appealing parts of nun-hood, but then as you consider it, the unappealing parts (praying, religious conviction, being nice to poor people, etc) pop up and make you reconsider and go back to the porn instead.

[odycee.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... tough choice. Religious conviction or porn. Religious conviction or porn. Religious conviction or porn.

...

Porn with a side order of porn please.

[emony.livejournal.com]

Amen to that ;)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

My mother's equivalent of this was wanting to be a librarian (and suggesting that I should consider that as a career too!) and I wonder how much of that nun-rejection was fuelled by the many years of taking my siblings to church while my lapsed-Catholic arsehole dad happily ignored his supposed religion... ;)

[emony.livejournal.com]

My mother wanted to be a nun as well as wanting to be a librarian, and she too was always suggesting it as a possible career for me. I kept trying to explain that I don't *like* books and I don't *like* silence, but it is a career she's always fancied, so apparently I should fancy it too. Mothers, go figure.

[jenoofer.livejournal.com]

It must be a common phenomenon, as I can also add to the 'considered it' pile. In fact, I think the only thing that's put me off is certain aspects of Catholicism. I really like the idea of giving up material stuff and spending my life doing something worthwhile. I have considered studying theology and becoming a vicar as well, or moving abroad to do some kind of charity work. The idea of so much constand hard work scares me a little, but I think after a while I'd get used to it.

Maybe everyone just goes through phases of wanting to escape all the crappiness of Western living, and convents or abbeys are one of the few places we all know of where you can get away from all that.

[emony.livejournal.com]

I guess the common thread is probably that we all considered it as a way of escaping when we had things that we wanted to escape from. But then we all figured being a nun wasn't so great either, and here we are.