Prayers go out to the family and friends of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, two amazing iconic persons who died yesterday.

As I’ve been reading the news about both Farrah and Michael, I’ve learned a couple of interesting connections to each one and nuns.

Farrah Fawcett was in two episodes of my favorite nun sitcom The Flying Nun.

The first was “Marcello’s Idol” (airdate 10/15/69), in which a young boy leads the nuns to conclude he need a male influence in his life when he refers to the sisters as “guys”. Ms. Fawcett played “Lila” in this episode. The second was an appearance as “Miss Preem” in “Armando and the Pool Table” (airdate 1/23/70), in which the nun’s benefactor, Carlos Ramirez, donates a pool table to the convent.
(source: Examiner.com)

Michael Jackson appeared with a group of Catholic sisters at an orphanage in Tokyo, Japan.

After weaving through dozens of screaming adult fans outside the downtown orphanage, Jackson was ushered into a gymnasium where more than 160 children between the ages of 3 and 18 and nuns in gray uniforms waited.
(source: CBS News)

I will remember Farrah most for her Charlie’s Angels role as as private investigator Jill Munroe. And Michael, well, what can I say. The man was an awesome performer and transformed the world of pop music and dance. Two of my faves and absolute classics as both songs and videos: Billie Jean and Black or White.

Rest in Peace, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. You will be missed and remembered.

We have our first visiting nuns at the Petri Dish Convent. Both are our own IHM sisters — one came from Puerto Rico and the other from Monroe. They are on their way to the Giving Voice conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The conference is for women religious under 50 years of age. It’s a great opportunity to hang with young sisters from a variety of communities across the country. I was looking forward to going — especially to meeting Sister Susan Rose of Musings of a Discerning Woman — but given the petri dish situation, I need to stay back and figure out what our next steps are.

Even though Sister Maxine and I have had our hands full with realtors and rehabbers, Home Depot runs, sorting through boxes, etc., we LOVE having our sisters here with us. They are such a support to us, encouraging us as we work through these issues, praying with us, and eating and playing with us! We had the best time last night out at a pizzeria and then coming home to watch The Flying Nun on DVD (will write about that in future!!).

Their presence reminds me of the importance of “being with” others. It’s not “doing for” or “taking control of” but simply and powerfully “being with”.

The Flying Nun is an icon in many people’s imagination — whether Catholic or non-Catholic, whether you saw the originals or just the re-runs. The Flying Nun was a sitcomin the late 1960s starring a young comic Sally Field as Sister Bertrille, a novice with the Daughters of Charity who could fly. Admittedly I dismissed the Flying Nun image as an unfortunate stereotype that we Catholic sisters and nuns still have to tangle with. Inevitably I’m asked, once people find out I’m a nun, if I can fly. The answer (not counting biking or driving) is um, no.

But I think I have had a conversion, or at least the beginnings of one. This morning I read an op-ed piece that made me proud to share the word “nun” with the Flying Nun. The article “Fear of Flying Nuns – a feminist defense of a 1960s girlhood TV hero” was written by Melody Clark for OpEdNews.com. In the article Clark wonders aloud why it’s perfectly acceptable to have a flying Kansas farmboy (Superman, Smallville) but not a flying young female nun. (Her commentary here is exquisite.) While I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the article, it did give me a different way to think about the image of the Flying Nun.

Here’s a snippet from the article.

And Sister Bertrille was no “owned woman” like the female lead in I Dream of Jeannie (constantly clad in provocative attire while she refers to her male companion as “master”).  Or a housewife who was regularly “ordered” to do things by her husband as was Samantha on Bewitched. Sister Bertrille (whose “real name” was Elsie Ethrington) was not a nun but a novice and therefore not yet “married to Christ”. The only man in her life was her companion of choice (the wonderfully harassed while continually love struck Carlos Ramirez). Her life was her own. Her career was her choice. She owed her gift of flight to no one but destiny.

Quite simply, The Flying Nun is a sweet, lovely allegory for personal empowerment (especially for little girls … and for those of us who occasionally aspire to think like them)….

I encourage you to read the whole article which critiques reviewers who have cast aside The Flying Nun as “the worst TV show of all time”. Clark redeems the show as well as the image of The Flying Nun and in effect reclaims Sister Bertrille as a young woman who can inspire us even today.