Flashmob Joy in Belgium
Got four minutes to temporarily forget your troubles and the many
troubles of a world beset with hostility?
Recently at the busy Central Antwerp, Belgium train station, a
flashmob appeared out of nowhere, as flashmobs are wont to do, and brought all
other activity to a stop.
No, this was not one of those flashmobs too often seen in America
where teenagers stage surprise, public demonstrations as a cover for their
criminal behavior. Rather, it was one used for no other reason than to bring
four minutes of sheer joy to harried commuters on their way to work with a
beautifully-choreographed rendition in song and dance of Julie Andrews’
uplifting “Do Re Mi” from “Sound of Music”.
The hundreds of enthusiastic performers, mostly young people with a
few adults sprinkled in, clearly had as much fun as their rapt
audience.
Of course, where there is joy, there usually are grumps who feel a
need to voice their grumpiness to spread their grump by puncturing joy
balloons.
After the video of the Belgian joy-fest went viral, one Scrooge,
Ronald Book, was compelled to bitch about “People taking up public space to sing
and dance while others are trying to go somewhere . . . Who do these people
think they are?” . . . (Read more and see the video at
http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=38403.
Olalla Oliveros Joins a Nunnery!
When the rather mousey Maria Augusta Kutschera fled Nonnberg Abbey in
Austria and went on to marry Captain Georg von Trapp and establish a von Trapp
dynasty, featured in the mostly fictional ”The Sound of Music,” there was little
consternation over her abandoning her vocation in favor of the captain and his
seven children.
When 36 year old Olalla Oliveros chose to reverse Maria’s course and
give up fame and fortune in favor of becoming Sister Olalla del Sí de María, the
beautiful Spanish model who had also appeared in television commercials and
worked as an actress traded her flourishing career in favor of becoming a
Catholic nun, she caused quite a bit of a stir.
She became a what?
A Catholic nun, you know, one of that increasingly-rare breed of
women who dedicate their lives to God and celibacy in lieu of pursuing earthly
pleasures. Some even say her decision may signal a rebirth of
a near dormant Spanish catholicism.
(In a snarkily-titled article, “Did She Just Fancy a Change of
Habit,” Britain’s Daily Mail reports Olalla made the move four years
ago not last month but, as Hillary Clinton would say, “What difference does it
make?”)
Ms. Oliveros entered the semi-cloistered Order of Saint Michael in
May following what she described as an “earthquake” experience during a visit to
Fatima, the little village in Portugal where Our Lady of Fátima appeared to
three poor shepherd children in 1917, performed miracles, made predictions,
revealed three unsettling secrets, and urged the conversion of
Russia.
Initially and understandably, visualizing herself in nun garb seemed
beyond ridiculous . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=37708)
