March 01, 2001
Every Day is Fat Tuesday
Lent has always been this fascinating, mysterious season for me. Sometime when I was in middle school, I think, I first started to understand the concept, and for that time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, folks gave up something. I remember asking my mother about it once, and she said, "Oh, Lent is something the Catholics do, not us." It's not that my mother (or more accurately, the church in which I was raised) was prejudiced against Catholics in particular -- they thought that everybody else was going to Hell.I remember being vastly disappointed, because the Church of Christ didn't have any cool holidays. Heck, they didn't really even celebrate Christmas or Easter as a congregation, because both were too commercial (and because neither holiday is in the Bible, y'see). When I got older, and started searching for some sort of spiritual tradition I could believe in and relate to, one of the biggest things I explored were holidays. Pagan holidays -- I've been a part of Ostara (speaking of Easter), Samhain, Lughnasa celebrations, taking something away from each of them. And every year, I come back to Lent. What shall I give up for Lent this year? I always ask myself. And every year, I decide not to give up anything.
I admit that I don't understand a lot of the theology behind Ash Wednesday or Lent; it's not something I've ever looked into. However, it does have a meaning to me, of a time set aside each year, not to give up a bad habit like a New Year's Resolution, but to willingly sacrifice something for a spiritual reason, like fasting. I suppose I've never given anything up because I've never been able to form any sort of spiritual goals. That's ironic, because I do consider myself a spiritual person, but my actual beliefs are still hazy. I suppose I just don't feel a burning need to trap theological truths and dose them with formaldehyde so they stay still and perfectly pinned inside me. I did that for so long while I was growing up. So I learn from a broad range of things, but don't commit to any one path. Maybe that is my path, I don't know.
So anyway, no, I'm not giving anything up for Lent.
Posted by Lisa at March 1, 2001 08:40 PM
