Movie recommendations and stumbling upon a Mies treasure

I've always wanted to be a monk. Ever since I read Kathleen Norris' "The Cloister Walk" a few years ago, I've been drawn to the idea of an ascetic life, without the burden of material possessions, filled with time to read, pray, and beyond the constant noise of the city. I went on a weekend-long silent retreat once and loved it. I've never slept so well -- it was so quiet. I felt relieved not having to talk to others at the retreat center. No pressure to strike up a conversation. Plenty of time to pray, read, meditate.

When I was single and lived alone, my bedroom (and I'm a little embarrassed about this) looked like the cell of a monastery. White walls, simple bed, plain white comforter, one plain dresser, and a crucifix on the wall opposite my bed. David complains my decorating style is TOO ascetic for him. I want everything clean and simple. He likes lots of color and doesn't mind clutter.

We went to see a movie last weekend, Into Great Silence, about monks at a monastery in France. It documents the daily lives of a handful of Carthusian monks -- the strictest of the roman-catholic order. They live in silence mostly, only talking one day a week. They never leave their cells, except for prayers and mass in the chapel and for a walk one day a week. This is the first time the monks have ever been filmed, and it's a beautiful documentary. I highly recommend it. I was all ready to sign up, but then David reminded me that 1) I'm married to him 2) I'm a woman so I'd have to be a nun instead. Bummer. It just wouldn't be the same. Plus, I read online that Carthusian monks only get three hours of sleep at a time because they have to get up an pray during the night. Plus, their beds are made of straw. That just wouldn't work for me.

So I guess I won't join the monastery soon. But you should go see the movie. It's like being in a monastery for 2 1/2 hours. Very peaceful and contemplative. And you don't have to sleep on straw.

We also rented "Sophie Scholl: The Last Days" which won the best foreign language movie and was listed by Christianity Today as one of the top 10 "Redemptive" movies of 2006. It's about three young adults who were part of the resistance in Germany during WWII. Be sure to rent the DVD.

On Sunday the weather was beautiful and we decided to take a Sunday drive to Sandwich Illinois, which apparently has a killer antique/flee market on certain Sundays. However, we were there during a "non-flea-market day" and there wasn't much to see, only a handful of antique stores. But it was a nice drive and after we walked through the disappointing shops, we drove over to a forest preserve/park nearby. As we were driving out, I noticed a white building on the other side of the Fox River. "Oh my gosh, stop!" I told David. "It looks like that Mies van der Rohe house!" Sure enough, we drove across the bridge to the other side of the river and it was the famous Farnsworth House. I knew it was somewhere in Illinois -- I just didn't know where, and we had unwittingly stumbled upon it. Unfortunately, we tried to take a tour but an architectural class from University of Minnesota was touring it at the time so we would have had to wait 2 hours to get in. Bummer. But, we did get to see if from afar and we put it on our list of things to do this summer.