I actually have monastery life as my retirement and/or "uh oh
life fell apart!" plan.
I stayed in an Eastern Orthodox (Christian) one for a very short
time. I liked the Epicurean lifestyle and singing every day.
Plus, plenty of time for academic pursuits. One thing I liked
about the way the Orthodox do it is there's no functional
difference between male monasteries and female monasteries. A
monk's a monk. The gender separation was already existent in the
epicurean communities brought in during the Byzantine times,
likely due to practical matters.
There HAVE been some monasteries recently that are gender mixed,
and even some for couples. Not a bad lifestyle. Of course,
there's the religious thing....
