Well, for the next 24 days I will be blogging, hopefully with some regularity, about my experiences with Lent, and living without something that I use pretty often otherwise.
Some background: I am not Catholic, nor do I really identify as any kind of Christian, but the idea of 40 days of self deprivation is quite a nice sentiment. Give yourself a pat on the back for that one, Catholic Church. It begins on Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras, and continues until just before Easter Sunday, Easter Eve, or apparently, for the Roman Catholic Church, until Holy Thursday. Many people don't count Sundays in their self-denial, and there are plenty of other little differences between traditions, but since I'm not doing this for religious reasons, I'm just gonna not eat peanuts until Easter and call it a day (well, 40 technically wacka wacka). So Easter Eve - 40 days = Ash Wednesday
So the whole thing is, people wanted to celebrate the day of Jesus' resurrection, Easter Sunday, then to remember Jesus' 40 days in the desert, they decided to spend the for 40 days beforehand in a period of self-reflection, prayer, charity, sometimes acts of penance, fasting and/or giving up certain luxuries. Then, because they would be spending 40 WHOLE DAYS without their beloved _______, they decided that they had to have an annual 24-hour blowout and just indulge themselves for a day before embarking on their righteous journey of sacrifice. Thus, Mardi Gras was born! And for those who don't know french, Mardi Gras translates literally into Fat Tuesday, with which you also may be familiar. The French do Mardi Gras for real.
So the idea behind Lent is to give up something you love, or are accustomed to, for 40 days. Well, living as a middle class, white girl in a hip college town with no allergies or religious restrictions, pretty much nothing is forbidden from me. So the concept of living without anything was not unheard of, but certainly unexperienced. Yeah, I knew about the starving kids in Africa, I'd seen homeless people in my very own community, but I could not empathize with them in anyway, because I had never truly been denied anything.
The Beginning: 2011
Many people give up a certain food or related item for Lent, which I stick to as well. My first year, I gave up pretty much everything. Yep: veganism. It was surprisingly easy for me, although my parents were about ready to disown me by Easter. I didn't really miss eating all those animal products, and even considered continuing with it afterwards. I didn't. I also didn't get vegan powers, to my despair. But I did become vegetarian at the beginning of the year to prepare myself, and I haven't eaten meat since.
2012
The next year, I stopped drinking anything but water, which I thought would be too easy, as I almost never drink pop, milk, or juice, and coffee repulses me, but it proved to be way more difficult than veganism. Why? Because of my passionate love affair with tea. I have a cup of chai every morning, and often some herbal tea in the evening, which is TECHNICALLY water, in a way, but that would be cheating. I didn't suffer form caffeine withdrawal or anything, but it was so difficult to get away from those habits. And I REALLY love chai.
2013
This year, I didn't know when Mardi Gras was until a few days later. So I had to think of something I hadn't eaten in the past 36 hours, and I decided on peanut products. Which is pretty specific, compared to previous years, but hopefully it won't be too easy. So I'm living these 40 days like so many children in this country with peanut allergies. No peanut butter, no peanut M&Ms, most granola bars are out, as well as a considerable portion of Asian cuisine. I have decided that my allergy is not airborne, and that foods "made in facilities that also process" peanuts are okay. So far, other than some snacking restrictions, it's been uneventful. I've been eating too much Nutella, which we don't usually have, and is definitely less healthy than peanut butter... but it won't be around for long.
The act of deliberately removing an entire group from my diet has been an exciting challenge for me, it makes me feel healthier, and it alleviates some of the feeling of being a stereotypical American citizen inhaling anything that comes within range of my face, like kirby. As a citizen of the first world, I think I should experience being without something, in order to keep some perspective. Otherwise, I just feel fat and lazy and privileged.
Living without things is something that many Americans do not experience, but so many people do. So Lent, if not meant to increase religious devotion, offers some sense of perspective in a world that is, often, too easy.
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