Bicentennial Stanza Response 13+14

Both the 13th and 14th stanza discuss the narrator observe a memorable trinket owned by one of the nuns who cared for him. Her trinket is a Standing Liberty coin that has the first initial of a boy who took her on a date to the fair. The narrator mentions in stanza 13, "I had the distinct impression she still loved him." This is reinforced in Stanza 14 as the nun places the coin on the TV tray, next to her bed, and rosary. It sticks out to me because despite the nuns 'semi' literal sacrifice of her selling her soul to the Catholic church, she still holds on to this piece of memorabilia that precedes her current life in the strict and celibate convent.

The genius of the mention towards the nun and her church is the divergent opinion of the sexual revolution that was occurring during the 70's. The church had always been a relentless opponent to contraception, polygamy, and anything that essentially went against what it believed was the natural order regarding the unification of marriage. With the nun holding the coin as dear to her as her rosary, she still misses that boy and perhaps wishes they'd spent their lives together. She even reacts whenever the narrator mentions the word, "boy."

I wonder if the author included the nun and her coin with its fond memories as an important element of the 70's. It can be debated that this period was another strike to the churches influence over the western world, since the sexual revolution would challenge the church's viewpoint. The narrators own thoughts about the coin shows he doesn't necessarily have an opinion either way. As a coin collector himself much like the nun, he wonders how much less her coin is worth now that its been defaced.