More than a Cold Snap
The last time I wrote, it was -47F outside my front door. The temperature since then, has hovered somewhere between -45F and -52F at our house, and lower in areas east of us. Today, it’s on the warmer side, if you can call it that.
The fireworks celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Alaska Statehood, which were scheduled for this past Saturday, have been indefinitely postponed. Lisa and I were fully prepared to watch the display, but the ice fog was so thick, that they wouldn’t have been visible. I’m glad that Festival Fairbanks postponed them, and hope that the celebration will be held on an evening when the temperature is closer to zero.
Lisa and I saw the movie Doubt this past weekend. I took the following plot summary from the IMDB website:
It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the schools’ strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence.
First of all, the opening scenes of this movie gave me serious flashbacks of attending parochial school as a child. I was a 1st and 2nd grade student at Maternity BVM in Philadelphia in 1965-66, and I swear there were nuns like Sr. Aloysius Beauvier! There’s a scene at Sunday Mass, when a young boy is busy having a conversation with another student, and Sr. Beauvier comes up behind him and whacks him in the back of the head!
When I went to Catholic school, there was knuckle rapping with rulers, lots of Hail Mary’s for penance, and I even remember one nun who kept a “dunce cap” in the classroom, and would put bad kids in the corner wearing it. There was also a demerit system, as well as detentions for not following the rules perfectly. When I was in 2nd grade, I was made to kneel on the floor so that the nun could see if my uniform skirt was long enough. It had to touch the floor when I was on my knees. It didn’t, by 1/2 inch at most. I was kept in from recess, and a note was sent home to my mother, telling her she either needed to buy me a new jumper, or take down my hem. She lowered my hem that night.
I was pulled out of Catholic school and sent to public school in 3rd grade. I remember how happy I was not to have to wear a uniform everyday, but I also discovered what it was like to be made fun of for not having ‘cool’ clothes. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
As for the movie? I found it to be interesting, thought provoking, and even a little disturbing. Merle Streep is truly excellent in her role as Sister Aloysius Beauvier. All the actors did very well. The movie ends just short of giving a solid “guilty/not guilty” verdict regarding the actions of Father Flynn. You are left to make your own decision based on what you have seen, or what you personally believe. If you like movies that leave you in a place of uncertainty, you’ll enjoy this movie.
