Written by Compassion Chidozie
“Love at first sight has existed for ages, at the sea, marketplace, in private, and in the offering of our time and space. It comes uninvited but at the right time, unsuspected. It consumes, is blessed, and sets free. Love-at-first sight is a replica of the sun that kisses the ostrich sitting at the river bank, and the gaze filamenting the cheetahs who are native to Africa and Southwest Asia to speed up the adventure of discovering a new home while moving from the known to the unknown. These, and many more are samples of love at first sight.” -Compassion Chidozie (2023).
Inquiry deeply, there are many unearthed fruits to this call.
There are icebreakers living with us but yet to be discovered. The story about the nun that fell in love with a monk became an icebreaker when BBC, CNN, CBS, and other international and local cabals broadcasted the icebreaking story, making it go agog. It sprouted the gory eyes of the onlookers, teetered, yelled at us, and polluted the air of peace. Everyone called in, to know more about – who they are, what inspires their intentions, negotiations, and barrenness. This new fountain has challenged the old ways of seeing facts and fiction. It has set the converts and the un-converts free from many delusions of not “becoming” their dreams. The intentions of this nun and monk distributed to me a template that stupefy the theory of love at first sight upending every boundary of shades. It was a closed call for the unborn and old-born thereby setting a retinue that shall be soon adopted by the institutions of faith – religion. It looks like the sanctuary has been set ablaze by this new phenomenon.
I included transgender in the discourse for the benefit of balancing the conservation surrounding divergent opinions concerning where we have been (past), where we are (present), and where we are going (future) in relation to our entanglement. Situational transgender entails the eclipse of humanity where limitless formulas are orchestrated, and opinionated within the frameworks of consciousness. Quickly, one pertinent question that suffers encumberment in the mind is the contradictions and complexities of celibacy and transgender. Celibacy answers the question of “yes, I would remain untouched against the opposing flesh” while transgenderism answers the question of “yes, I have options.” What is missing in the two terms is trust. Celibacy and transgenderism don’t trust each other which made them like oil sitting on the water, floating.
Never assuaging the oath taken at the primary stage of priestly ordination to remain celibate and dedicated to the call of the gospel, which intones dialectic line when the priest or the nun gains ground, forms opinions about his past and present decisions, and starts asking irritating questions of ‘why’ and ‘how.’ Through this action, the nun and the monk have made themselves scavengers of the cross. They are protesting, and asking for the same fate and mercies requested by the transgenders. All love must be extended to strangers and agrarians.
Sister Mary Elizabeth and Friar Robert’s decision to marry have come to stay and consolidated our thoughts about celibacy and marriage. They are teaching us how to think about ourselves in critical challenges.
If you ask me, I would say that the “new pattern” has challenged or exposed the secrets of the community of people living at the convent. It has tamed the secret lovers inhabiting the corridors of the convent, exchanging gifts and love letters with the ‘other’ and ‘self’ through the help of the security guard who accepts bribes to deliver the gift items and letters.
The same root of the unfamiliar resides in the wandering trace, the erroneous line, the hideous step, the uncomfortable departure from the elegance of the customary. The monastery is going to learn a new dance; a dance of silence: a dance of rumors: a dance of celebrations, and a dance of crying. The culmination of the chemistry which our bodies embody transports us into a different realm of “spirituality and duality” if we allow it to spiral down. Tight between light and hope, the Roman Catholic convent offers reverend sisters just two-factory authentications; meeting with their families and meeting with the ‘others’ in the same convent, other duties are about serving in the convent and promoting catholic doctrines. They are wittingly barricaded from the wonderment of the earth thereby subjugating them to a “hermit lifestyle.” I really feel the passion of Sister Elizabeth and Rev. Robert to say goodbye to the old ways of doing things.
“I just felt chemistry there, something, and I was a bit embarrassed. And I thought, gosh, did he feel that too? And as I let him out the door it was quite awkward. I didn’t know what it feels like to be in love and I thought the sisters could see it in my face. So, I became quite nervous. I could feel the change in me and that scared me. I was a little bit shocked. I wore a veil so he never even saw my hair color. He knew nothing about me really, nothing about my upbringing. He didn’t even know my worldly name,” Sister Lisa said. She was celibate for 24 years before breaking the streak.
“When she appeared at the pub the little demon in me was terrified. But my fear was not religious or spiritual, it was purely about how I would start a new life at the age of 53.” -Roberts said.
“Love can make a sacrament of everything you do.” This is one bold step that urges us to emulate the signs of identification, the signs of love at first sight. Our world ought to be likened to a children’s playbook where spellings or drawings seem easy to comprehend. Traditions, customs, and cultures are staying washed in the basin of the Otta-Mmiri river. We are left with the adaptation approach or stand in askance and allow these “new patterns” to shape our future – the future of our world where elaborations, bodies, and minds would be allowed to exist without prejudices. The nun and the monk would go to the wilderness of bewilderment to experience a world they desired.
Compassion Chidozie 2023©
Hello, and well done!