Lent

Lent. It starts tomorrow. I didn’t really ever learn about Lent until college when the Nazarene chaplain talked about it at Wednesday’s Ash Wednesday chapel. I got the ashes on my forehead and decided to give up chocolate. It was rough though. I had to wait until after my birthday to eat the candy my mom had sent to me. This year, I’m not sure I’m participating in Lent. But since in the next half an hour I plan to start my Fat Tuesday celebration, I thought it might be good to think about what I could possibly give up. Here are my ideas.

#1: Sarcasm – Nope. There’s no way I could handle myself without sarcasm for 40 whole days.
#2: Chocolate – I’m already on a pretty serious diet. What would be the use of cutting off the random piece of chocolate I consume once every two weeks?
#3: Jelly beans – Nice idea, but I don’t even eat jelly beans unless it’s Easter.
#4: Sandwiches – Sure, the whole idea of Lent is to help you focus more on Holy things by cutting out other idols and obsessions, but I couldn’t give up sandwiches. Come on, I’m a good enough person. Let me have my sandwich! ☺
#5: TV – It’s hard enough to go a weekend without watching TV. Why on earth would I try this for Lent?
#6: Writing – Are you kidding me? You might as well ask me to hold my breath for 40 days. Are you really ready to plan a funeral?
#7: Soda – Ok. This is an idea. But I just tried to cut off soda for a week and only lasted 6 days. Sad.

That’s it. I give up. I’m not sure what I should do for Lent this year. Perhaps I could just try to think happy thoughts. I like that. Be happy for 40 days. It’ll be 40 days towards my goal for 2011. All I want is to be happy. Hmm. I like this.

Happy Mardi Gras, y’all!