Seriously. It's March in Maine. Poor March, it gets an even worse rap than November, when really, all it tries to do is show us that our hemisphere is getting serious about a sun-ward tilt. The days get longer, snow starts to melt, occasional days hit fifty degrees. Yes- the melting uncovers a mucky world of murky colors, and many days hit below freezing, but should we begrudge the month itself just because of its position in Earth's orbit? And obviously, March is the best month... somewhere.
In Maine, March offers us Lent! And... town meetings!
Yes. I am trying. And possibly I am trying too hard. But that is because I have 22 days to go until April. And so do you. So work with me. Let's brighten up the month.
Let's talk Lent. I do it every year, so deal. Growing up, I didn't even know what it was. Can you believe how my parents neglected my spiritual upbringing? Bust out the toys for Christmas and the chocolate for Easter, sure- but where was the Ash? The fasting, people, the fasting?! In their defense, my bare-bones religious experience was partly my own fault: I wasn't into the mortification of my flesh (itchy tights were required church wear, which is why I stopped going to church as soon as I was given the choice), so I totally missed out on the best season in the Christian calendar.
Happily I picked up some loosely Catholic/Papist-leaning-Protestant friends along the way, so the season of self-denial was not lost to me forever. Though if you think about it, being denied the knowledge of what could potentially be one's favorite religious practice, which is itself about denial and repentance would be kinda funny. One year I will probably have to give up Lent for Lent.
But this year, I am giving up a food and an action.
Cherry Garcia: consider your self served with legal separation papers. We couldn't go on like we were- the weekly trysts, the frozen yogurt guise of goody-goodness. And no, I won't replace you with some other sweet substance of your cold and milky ilk. To be 100% honest, I have to admit that I unthinkingly partook of some chocolate ice cream last night, but was saved because in many denominations Sundays during Lent are like mini-Easters, and you may relax your avowed aversions. Normally I eschew this weak and namby-pamby loophole, but you know... my memory is not very good, and my ability to self-justify using wiki is excellent. But that's it Cherry Garcia, I won't break again. Ice cream is out. Jeezy Creezy definitely did not have ice cream while wandering in the desert, and this is all about the solidarity.
Also, I am thinking he probably didn't do a lot of recreational lying. Well. Maybe not. Okay, a case could be made that he was all about the recreational lies, and no one got the joke. "No, there was totally this dude, Lazarus..."
But I am going to give it a rest for a while. Because I love lying for fun. And I recognize that really, taking advantage of the gullible is not the kindest mode of humor. This is the hard vow. While I might have opened a container of Schwann's Select Chocolate last night without thinking- it was certainly a more conscious decision than when I automatically begin making sarcastic shit up. Somewhere along the way I whole-heartedly embraced the idea that you should never let truth stand in the way of a good story. To some extent I still stand by this, but there are times that you should just play it straight. So for forty days and nights I will try- I will actually pay attention to what I say- occasionally before I even say it.
So that's the Lent '09 update. To cover all the bases (giving up indulgent food and jerky actions, while adding more prayer and charity), I will try not to recreationally lie to the universe when I talk to it (on a more frequent basis), and I will, you know, continue to lend a hand where and when I can.
In closing, enjoy the Bright Sadness of the season, if only vicariously through me!
Me in my favorite false shirt, which reads "brunette." I also have one
that proclaims me to be a pisces. If I ever bought something
monogrammed, I can assure you, it would not include the initials M, R, C, or W.
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