Lent
By ice rivers
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Even though I'm excommunicated from the Catholic Church, I still cling to some traditions while other traditions that I want to get rid of cling to me.
I'm stuck with the guilt, the repression, the suppression and the self-flaggelation. I've still got the propensity towards over analysis that leads to indecision and submission
Thanks a lot, Father Cornelius.
I'm still obedient to a fault and regularly confess to my wife after she catches me in an act of disobedience.
Two of the traditions that I cling to are related to one another.
On Easter Sunday we always play the entire album of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Preceding Easter, there is Lent...perhaps my favorite tradition.
Lent is a time for short term-resolutions and realizable convictions.
40 days, baby.
I can do 40 days.
New Year's resolutions usually last a week or two because a year is just too damned long but 40 days, oh yeah, I'm in for that.
And let's face it long term change requires short term conviction to get the change off the ground and into orbit, into routine, into habit.
So for this Lent, I'm giving up my most persistent self-indulgence. I'm giving up cookies and candy.
I've quit drinking and smoking before, many times in fact but always there was the constant comfort of cookies and candy particularly chocolate chips, Oreos, Reese's Pieces, M and M's, Mint Girl Scout Cookies, and donuts of every variety...particularly chocolate glazed.
We've got a pantry full of those items as I type. They are calling to me. They've been calling ever since Ash Wednesday.
For the other 325 days of the year, I can resist anything but temptation but during Lent, sing your siren song Oreos. I'm blindfolded and tied to the mast. You're not gonna turn me into swine. Not during Lent.
I will lose weight during this time. I'm cutting down approximately 1000 calories a day. I don't have to burn them off with walks or "runs" or treadmills or stationary bikes. I don't need to burn them because they're not there in the first place.
I'm already a week in and feeling great.
Last night for example, I did the equivalent ot running a mile right before bedtime with my pajamas on. How did I do it.
Simple really.
I didn't consume my usual nighcap of a half dozen Oreos and a giant glass of milk.
Lent.
I'm not looking past Lent.
I'll look past Lent when we're listening to Jesus Christ Superstar.
Perhaps by that time, I'll have reached the escape velocity needed to propel me into a new orbit. I will have become a slightly different person and that change will manifest itself physically, spiritually and emotionally.
Just in time for giant chocolate bunnies and marshmallow eggs.
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You are excommunicated from
You are excommunicated from the Catholic Church? It's always interesting to read what people are giving up for a Lent. To be honest, I don't bother myself. I think I know which direction I'm heading in when my number's up...
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