If Hamlet were to say, “Get thee to a nunnery” *today* to Ophelia… she might try googling it up only to find the complete dearth of info on the process. In this day and age, when one can almost always find a “step-by-step how to” or “dummy’s guide” to practically everything, with searches like “joining the army”, “joining the zombies” or “joining the __,” how interesting is it to chance upon a search with no pre-existing guides. One wonders… is this truly the path less taken? The googling turns up a page on TSUM and a number on Kidman’s possible Australian nunnery, which accepts married women.
TSUM describes a monastery in Tibet that until recent times were below minimum living standards, unable to properly shelter and feed its monks and nuns until recently, when some donation spiel started. Apparently, most of the nuns came from situations prone to domestic violence, and thus the path to Dharma is advertised as the better path.
A search for “Australian nunnery” yields more results on Kidman’s potential joining the nunnery, and also a Nunnery Hotel whose rates come with free food. Apparently, monastery hotels are now the rage according to CNN. But, hotels are brief escapades. What of longer stays — say, lifelong ones?
Searching for “how to join a nunnery” yields results about how Bhutan didn’t used to have nunneries, but now has 13. There’s also this other girl’s blog about her preference for cloistered life.
One wonders if it’s just a googlian conspiracy for the peculiar lack of guidance on joining a nunnery. The other yields this as the first link for a search on “joining a nunnery.” And again, you get the idea that nunneries are badly kept places, where the nuns all starve. :-X And yet, another yields this as one of the top results.
Tibetan nuns seem like wonderful people, and they know these finger tricks.
In conclusion, I’d say that a modern Ophelia would be thoroughly confused at finding out *how* to join a nunnery. NASA may even have to issue out another RFI.
