Old Movies

When Sundays are overcast and chilly, as yesterday was, I love to gather the blankets on the sofa and watch old movies.  At first I feel a little guilty about laying on the couch, vegging and doing nothing but then I remind myself that I'm not really doing nothing.

 

 

I work very hard during the week at my full-time job, plus I have other family responsibilities that I'm always trying to squeeze in here and there.  So when I find a day to watch a movie from beginning to end, I try to stop and enjoy it for the healing luxury that it is. 

 

Yesterday as I was surfing the channels I found a classic from 1966 that took me back to my younger days: Trouble With Angels starring Hayley Mills and June Harding as two troublemakers who are sent to an all girls convent school to get straightened out.  Rosalind Russell plays the Reverend Mother (the person in charge of the school and the convent) perfectly!  She never misses any of the girls tricks!

 

Here a short clip from Trouble With Angels:

 

 

 

As you can see it's worth it to watch the movie just to see the style of clothes and hair from the mid-1960's and laugh at the silly havoc that the girls spread through the school which these days will seem mild to most people.

 

Having gone to a Catholic elementary and high school, I find the movie to be hysterical and also I must say I identify with the girls always getting trouble because that was my experience with the restrictive but instructive structure of Catholic schools.  In hindsight, I see that I received an excellent education even if I wasn't always receptive to everything that was being taught to me and I admit there was something about being told that I had to do it the nuns' way that made me want to break their rules.

 

Not very smart I know, but I had a lot of fun and made a lot of great friends and have many hysterical memories of that time.

 

Just as Hayley Mills and June Harding find it hard to think of the nuns as women who had other lives before they donned their long black habits and veils so did I.  I look back on those days when my friends and I made it so hard for some of the nuns and I cringe.  

 

I think the movie glosses over what living in a convent is really like but that's okay because after all it's just a movie and it's supposed to be a comedy not a documentary.  I'm sure that in every convent there were nuns who were great friends, nuns that you felt deep respect for and nuns that drove you up the wall.

Just like the people you meet in real life right?

I hope you did something relaxing this weekend and that those good vibes follow you through this week!
 

Nuns On The Bus

Nuns on The Bus

Independence of thought and action is what we celebrated yesterday on the Fourth of July and in keeping with that theme, I can't think of a more unique group of Americans who just finished traveling the country expressing their independent thoughts than the "Nuns on the Bus."

In case you missed this campaign that held its final rally yesterday, the Nuns on the Bus are a group of Catholic nuns who started a  two-week, 2,700 mile tour of the United States on June 18 to speak out against the Republican federal budget proposal put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin which the nuns say favors wealthy Americans at the expense of poor families.

Led by Sister Simone Campbell, the nuns visited shelters, food pantries and community centers as wells as congressional offices to bring attention to social justice issues and  get the public to join them in their protest the House Republican budget.  Ryan has defended his budget cuts by saying the cuts were influenced by his Catholic faith.

"Many politicians offer deeply flawed theological justifications for the federal budget," Campbell said.  "They ought to get some theological help."

These days it is a bit unusual to even see a nun.  Nuns today are on society's frontlines.  If you do see a nun, she is usually in a school or a hospital, assisting in ways to strengthen her community.  When I was growing up there were lots of nuns and all of my friends and myself briefly thought about becoming a nun and then quickly abandoned the idea.

You would think that the Vatican would be pleased with their work for the common good but instead the Vatican recently issued a report criticizing their involvement in social justice issues and concluded that the nuns should be spending more time on preventing abortions and same-sex marriage.

Hmmmmmmm............My point about the nuns is that they are not afraid to speak up for themselves and give their point of view.

Coping with grief can involve many courses of action and your point of view on renewing your life is also important.  There is no exact timetable for how you handle your grief.  But you are in the process of rebuilding your life because it has drastically changed.

In experiencing the rebuilding of your life without your loved one, you are forging a new independence and it can sometimes be frightening.  Take life one day at a time and if you are starting to feel helpless, then reach out to someone you trust.

You are trying to redefine who you are because you lost the role that you had when your loved one was still alive and that can take time.

How should you spend that time?  Perhaps take some inspiration from the nuns and offer a helping hand to someone in need, and in offering assistance and support, you are also helping yourself by jumping back into life.