Personal Lent

The picture kind of sums it up, but I will elaborate. My girlfriend and I are having our own personal lent, meaning that we have each decided to give something up for the next 38 days. We are calling it our personal lent because neither of us are religious and we decided to do it after the 'official' start of the Catholic Lent, which was last week. You might want to know why we are doing this. It is strange to do something religious when you are not religious. We are doing it because we just want to remind ourselves that we live in a state of plenty, meaning that we have plenty of everything to make our lives possible, plenty of food, shelter, love, etc. and privileges, when so many people around the world do not have what they need to clothe, feed, and protect themselves. We can live without somethings to help us to remember all that we do have in our lives. Furthermore, our lives are just fine without some of the gluttonous over-consumption that is encouraged and celebrated in the US.

So I'm giving up chocolate. I will miss this dear friend. But I know that its availability in the US is dependent on slave labor conditions and unfair import export rules that govern globalization. My girlfriend is giving up bread and sweets. So there will be minimal bread, sweets, and no chocolate around the house for the next month.

Of course there is whole host of reasons why self-denial is a bad idea for women, who are already well versed in putting themselves last, but for me, this is a personal choice to help me reconnect with the fact that I am a privileged person living in strange days in a country on the brink of something wonderful or horrible (depending on your perspective).