What the World Needs Now Is...

...nuns, more nuns.

Bonus points to those who recognized the song lyric hidden in my pithy title/introduction.

I'm serious too. About the nuns that is.

When was the last time you saw a nun? Would you know if you did? I'm not sure when it happened but somewhere a long the line, for good or bad, the nuns were able to liberate themselves from their habits.

You can't tell a nun from any other woman any more.

There are far less nuns than their used to be. There's any number of closed convents all around the country. The world for that matter.

Now mind you, the fact that this world needs more nuns is not affected by anyone's belief (or disbelief) in God, particular religion (or disbelief in religion) or sincere belief that we evolved from tadpoles. It has nothing to do with Catholicism or the fact that we currently share air with the most interesting Pope in eon's. (Don't hate; you don't have to agree with him or his action's to admit that he is interesting). 

It has to do with nuns. or in my opinion: "Nuns".

Nuns never cared about our religion. They care about THEIR religion, but they don't care about ours.

They love us anyway.

They pray for us even if we believe God is a big fat fairytale in the vein of Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny and that cheapskate Tooth Fairy.

The Atheist, the Agnostic, the people who disagree with the Catholic Church on every level may say "well, I don't need some nun to pray to her imaginary God for me. What good is that? They aren't doing anything for me.".

Sure they are.

Whether we believe or not, Nuns do. They pray for each and every one of us. They sacrifice the type of life we enjoy because they love us and because they believe their prayers are for our benefit.

Nuns exemplify almost the rarest form of selflessness. They believe with all their being that their existence is to serve their God by serving His children. That being said, it still doesn't matter if YOU believe in God. Nuns do.

Many of us are old enough to remember when there was an abundance of Nuns. To my knowledge (and I admit I haven't researched deeply) prior to modern times, the last 20 years or so, there's never been a shortage of Nuns.

You could walk downtown and see a couple habit clad Sisters waiting for a bus, collecting coin' for charity work, assisting an elderly person with grocery shopping.

That still happens today. We just don't realize what we're seeing are Nuns.

Here's the thing; When there were more Nuns, when they were visible and recognizable where ever we went, the world was a better place.

Even an Atheist would be touched by a smile or blessing from a Nun. Everyone always respected the Nuns, jokes aside.

When they were in front of us we were always reminded to be on our best behavior. We were always reminded to be kind to each other. Many times a Nuns presence alone could give a feeling of being loved and cared for.

My Mom & my Aunt Donna went to Catholic school for awhile in their youth and told stories of wicked Nuns slapping their hands with rulers and things of that nature.

I'm sure there were some. There is no avocation whose participants have reached perfection. 

My experience was much different than my Mom & my aunts.

I started young in the Catholic church but was also removed quite early by my Mom as well, due to issues she had with the Church.

My experience with Nuns during my Catechism were always nice in my memory. I think Priests were scarier- and not because of the crude joke you just remembered either.

During my teenage years I did however end up under the care and supervision of a group of Nuns in Green Bay. Long story.

That group of Nuns was incredible. Available any time. Talk about anything. Reassuring. Comforting.

It was a Nun who first taught me how to saddle a horse.

She also taught me the importance of extracting horse poo from the stall and gave me a lesson.

Another taught me the Nuns Secret To Non-Bitter Coffee- little bit of salt mixed in the ground coffee.

I look at what's happening in Baltimore today (and what's been happening all over the country) and I wonder: Would it have gotten that bad, would people have behaved that way if there were Nuns standing on the corner waiting for a bus or collecting coins?

Obviously Nuns did not stop the riots and protest's of the '60's & 70's.

But there's a difference in those riots and protests. Back then people knew what they were protesting. Before they protested, before the riots (just as criminally wrong as those today) they KNEW why they were protesting and rioting. They weren't doing it because MAYBE something was worthy of protest or riot.

They took a minute.

I could be wrong but I think that strong presence of Nuns caused people to stop and think for just a moment before acting.

Or maybe I'm full of crap.

I know the world seemed like a nicer place back then.

At this point,  anything is worth a shot right?

Bring on the Nuns. (Note to Dad's of daughters: if you encourage your daughters to become Nuns you will NEVER have to worry about boyfriends AND you can rest easy knowing you have helped provide a service to mankind).

Whether you think I'm nuts or not, know this: At this very moment (and I do not care what moment you happen to read this in), whether you believe in God or not, there are two Nuns- Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration to be exact- praying for you.

For over 135 years, at all times, 24/7 there have been two Nuns praying for us around the clock. They're in La Crosse, WI. I'm sure there's more all over the world. Think of the depth of that commitment and service to the souls of people they will never know.

What the world needs now is more Nuns.

Short of that, more of us have to learn to love, respect and value our fellow human beings as the Nuns have done for centuries.

Either way I'm confident the world would be a better place.