Donuts, Ashes, Sacrifice, Easter, What?

          Happy Fat Tuesday. Today is the day where you get to eat all the bad stuff you want and not feel bad about it. Right? You can stuff your face with donuts and candy and whatever else you think falls into the category of "fat making" food. Well my description of this little celebration might not be the best one out there but it sums it up pretty well. Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, and the start of Lent. For those that don't know, Lent is a Christian observance of penance and sacrifice. It is very religiously significant in a number of ways that I'm not going to get into. Why you ask? Because: 1. I'm not a Priest 2. I don't feel like getting into it and 3. The only thing people really care about is giving something up for 40 days.

          Lent is the time of year between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Now, for those of you who ran to your calendar to count the days. You'll find more than 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Well, dummies, it's because the Sundays don't count. So you take Ash Wednesday and the three days that follow, plus the six full weeks until Easter (excluding Sundays) and you'll get 40 days. [(6 X 6) + 4 = 40] That number is significant in a number religious ways as well. I won't get into them, I'll just say them. The Israelites walked in the wilderness for 40 years, and Jesus walked in the wilderness for 40 days. If you want to know more about that then please Google it. I'd like to focus on giving something up and sticking with it for the duration of Lent.

          This is supposed to be a time sacrifice and reflection. The idea of giving something up for Lent is so you can understand sacrifice and appreciate what you have. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. Let's look at a few.

          You can take the easy way out and give up something that you don't use that much anyway. For example, you could give up cheese puffs. Not a big deal if you don't eat them that often. You can still gorge yourself with chips and not feel guilty. It's a pretty lousy way to do it, but who am I to judge. In this time of year I'm pretty sure you know who'll be doing the judging.

          You can step it up a notch and give up something you do use everyday. For example, you could give up drinking beer. Or eating all kinds of candy. Or drinking soda. Those are a step above the cheap bitch in the example above. But you can still get drunk, eat unhealthy and drink other crappy drinks. So it's not extreme that the big guy upstairs is looking for. (I'm talking about GOD)

         The next step is giving up eating during the day. Very similar to Ramadan (the Muslim celebration thing) where Muslims fast from Sun up to Sun down. That's no eating or drinking (water is allowed) from the time the Sun comes up, until it's dark out again. That's a pretty extreme way to do it, but that certainly is sacrifice. JC's dad would appreciate that I'm sure.

          The real extreme would be to fast completely for the entire 40 days. You'll probably end up really sick or dead so I don't suggest this at all. You want to look good in the eyes of GOD but you don't necessarily have to schedule a meeting during Lent.

          I like to go with the second option on this one. I'm not real extreme about it but I'm still going to give up something I use everyday. For me it will be candy and junk food. I was thinking beer, but with St. Patrick's Day coming up I'd have to drink Gin all day long and that's a dangerous, very dangerous thing to do. I usually eat candy at lunch everyday, so I'll certainly be sacrificing. Add that in with the fact that you aren't supposed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent and I'll be sleeping like a baby at night. What is your plan?

           And you know, even if you're not a Christian, you could give something up for Lent anyway. Whether you agree with it or not, it will still make you appreciate what you have and give you another level of discipline you probably don't use right now. So take this time to reflect, either about religion or just about your own life, and see what you're made of for the next 40 days. One thing I won't be giving up is exchanging Hand-jobs for Ham Sandwiches. And that's just the way it is.