docs: def connect_to_database(host=None, port=None, connect=False, **kwargs):
      """
      Explicitly begins a database connection for the application
      (if this function is not called, a connection is created when
      it is first needed).  Takes arguments identical to
      pymongo.MongoClient.__init__
      
      @param host: the hostname to connect to
      @param port: the port to connect to
      @param connect:  if True, immediately begin connecting to MongoDB in the
          background; otherwise connect on the first operation
      """
      return CONNECTION.connect(host=host, port=port, connect=connect, **kwargs)