Lent

So I usually don’t do this whole Lent thing. Really, in my mind, it seems rather arbitrary that I should just pick something to give up and do my best to spend the next few weeks being a good boy about it. It really is tricky business. I can’t give up something that is too special or too important, because I would hate to actually sacrifice something that would make me live differently. I can’t give up anything too mundane, for then I’m not really trying and really just “giving” something up to feel like I’m a part of the giving club.

For example: I could give up television for the next few weeks. But then I would actually have to miss shows like Lost and March Madness and other things I enjoy watching. I could add a bunch of exceptions into the mix, like allow those things I really do care a lot about and let’s not forget ESPN and such. But really all that I am left with is a watered down commitment to not watch public television, the shopping network and that channel that only comes in spanish anyways. Thus, I have created the latter category: giving something up to feel a part of the club. Who knew this whole spiritual thing could be so much work?

Now don’t get me wrong. I really do like the idea of discipline and the power that the lack of something can have on how we reshape, refocus and reorient our lives. So this year I’m going to, gulp, attempt to try things a bit differently. Instead of temporarily removing something from my life, I am going to add to its abundance.

This Lenten season, I will be adding words to my daily life. No, I’m not writing a book, an essay or even a shopping list. I’m talking about this here thing we call blogging. For the next few weeks I will be undertaking posting as a way of taking from the myriad of events/thoughts/etc that compose my life and throw some variation of such into cyberspace in order to learn a little bit more about myself through the process of addition. And lookey here... day one is in the books :)