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 Years
ago I’d stumbled upon a book called Enlightenment and the
Art of Basketball. In it a hoop sage named Hirohide Ogawa describes
what he calls "private basketball," a mixture of balance,
hoops and Zen. So of course I lit out for Japan, hoping to take
a spot at his knee. But when all my pre-departure efforts to locate
Ogawa failed, I went to Japan anyway—and wound up pursuing
a spiritual tale of another sort: the story of how Shelly Pennefather,
winner of the 1987 Wade Trophy as the best collegiate women’s
player in the U.S., went from well-paid professional to cloistered
nun.
 Lynn
Johnson, who took the picture of a jerrybuilt outdoor court in the
Philippines that you can see if you click
here, took this shot above of Shelly, now Sister Rose Marie,
greeting her former Villanova teammates at the screen in the Poor
Clare monastery in Alexandria, Va., in 1997, shortly after she took
her sacred vows. For purposes of comparison, here’s Pennefather
in action for Villanova.
 TWENTY-TWO:
BHUTAN |
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