Ash Wednesday

It's the official entry day into Lent. I thought long and hard as to what I will be giving up during the next 40 days before Easter. This year i'm going to be a little bit different. In addition to physically giving up something, I am also going to sacrifice something abstractly. I'm going to limit my t.v. viewing to two hours a day. I think on hour will go to Oprah and the other hour will be a combination of local news and world news/or Nightline. The other thing that I will give up is sending unnecessary electronic communication when a phone call can be made. In the latter, I do use the phone as much as possible over email, etc. However, this time those who reach out to me in this manner (that I talk to with regularity), will have to call me in order to reach me and vice versa. This will be hard since everyone basically substitutes email over voice contact. Both allowances will be difficult but hey...that's why we Catholics give up stuff for Lent. It is a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

What's funny is that I am far from being a devout Catholic. I disagree with many of the church's teachings and practices like its stance on premarital sex, birth control, priests and marriage, and some other antiquated rules. I do still believe concepts like marriage before children, no to divorce, and the idea of heaven and hell and all actions that can put you into either place. I guess I still follow the no meat on Fridays and other stuff because of my upbringing in the Catholic school system. Every Lent we all gave something up and then were rewarded at Easter with a huge basket of candy and goodies. I think about Aunt Ernese alot during this time of year. Even though she never had children of her own, we as her nieces and nephews were her kids. She made sure I had an Easter basket every year. I miss her very much. She was one of two aunts in my entire family network that really listened to me when I spoke. I still go out each Easter and buy myself a basket. I'll be looking forward to some Peeps. Anyway, it doesn't look like i'll be able to get ashes but that's o.k. I better get moving so that I can come back and get a little reading done before class. Will revisit later.