And unto dust I shall return

[apple_pathways]

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Though I'm a lapsed Catholic and an atheist, I still believe in the ritual of fasting/denial. I think giving something up, denying oneself, focuses the mind and forces you to examine yourself. And so I want to give something up for Lent.

I'm thinking of giving up meat, but I'm not sure if it's entirely practical. (I've given up meat for a week at a time before, but certainly never for 40 days (46 with Sundays) before. Perhaps give up red meat? Or use the christian definition of meat and give up everything but fish? I'm not sure.

Does anyone else plan on denying themselves? Have any tales of fasting to share with me?

Did anyone eat a Pączki today? I forgot to get one. Hmm, perhaps I'll get a discount if I seek one out tomorrow...

Should I give up sweets instead?

Comments

[jobey-in-error.livejournal.com]

pączki! Whoa. I used to live in Pittsburgh, where they were certainly not a mainstream thing, but some of the old folk would always talk about them, and every so often you'd run into someone who actually made them/knew where to get them. I had no idea they were like a BIG THING elsewhere!!

It's a shame I'm late to this party, since I presume ;) you've already decided. Are you going with(out) the meats or the sweets??

Fasting is gonna become the next pilates/vegetarian/feng shui American fad sometime soon, I'd bet money on it. You alter your usual habits for a set period of time, not for a tendentious purpose (like dieting or cutting down on energy as an environmetally-conscious exercise) but simply to become more self-aware and self-controlled. All the women's magazines would have a field day with it. In fact, I suspect it already happened, and I was just too young/too unalive to see it...