First there was Mardi Gras, which in elementary school I knew had to do with parties and beads that were bad for some reason or another. People ate and drank a lot and acted crazy and then the next day went to church and felt bad. The priest/pastor/reverend/whatever-his-title-is rubbed ashes on people's heads and then it was Lent. In Lent the rule seemed to be if it felt/looked/tasted good then you couldn't do it anymore. And people had to eat fish on Fridays. Why? Cause the adults said so, I guess. They always offered fish on Fridays in the cafeteria, but I would get a burrito or pizza or casserole instead because school fish is gross, even in Hawaii. And then the kids would ask me why I was breaking Lent and I would say my family doesn't do Lent and they would ask me if I went to church and I would say no and they would ask if I believed in God and I would say no and they would say I was going to HHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLL and then I would eat my delicious not-fish lunch and make sure to eat the chocolate pudding slow to tease the other kids and if I was going to hell at least I was going with a stomach full of sugar which I bet they didn't have in heaven cause God seemed to hate good tasting food a lot. And then towards the end of Lent most of the kids had broke Lent -but only once!- or if they hadn't were counting the days till Easter. And then there was something about palm leaves, but I don't think that was very interesting because the kids never talked about it much. And then it was finallyfinallyfinally Easter and the girls wore pretty pastel dresses and the boys tugged at ties and went to church while I slept in and the Easter Bunny hopped into my house to hide the eggs we dyed. But being the biggest I knew it was really Dad, but Mom said not to tell the little kids. And every year we opened our Easter baskets and got chocolates and eggs and new swimsuits for the spring.
And that was it: Lent as I saw it in 3rd grade. It was weird. Still is today.
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You know what's kind of funny? I miss Lent. One part of religion that I liked was the changing of the religious calendar. I liked how, to remember the stories, we lived them out. Jesus went into the desert and fasted? We do Lent. Jesus tried and crucified? We do Holy Week. Jesus resurrected? We do Easter. And all through the year. I liked how Lent prepared me emotionally for Easter. It was like a roller coaster. You worked your way down, revelling in the tragedy of the story, the you got to be resurrected too. I miss all the symbolism loaded with emotion. I miss all the drama and the way it felt to live out the mythology. Too bad there is no God. :)
If you gave up Lent for Lent, would that still qualify as observing Lent? Perhaps that would get the Hell-casters off your back and allow you your pudding in peace!
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The girl that I lament for
The girl my back is bent for
The girl my money's spent for
The girl I pay the rent for
The girl I gave up Lent for
Is the girl that heaven meant for me!
-Tom Lehrer (more or less, I probably swapped a line or two)
I grew up Roman Catholic so, of course, I hardly participated in Lent.
Somehow I avoided even knowing what Lent was until I was much older... but I sure got the anti-atheist abuse when I told people in fourth grade I didn't believe in God. I had him classed with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Big mistake. (Not epistemological on my part, but rather failing to understand others' contexts and not realizing it wouldn't be obvious *to them* that the cases looked similar.)
College cafeteria served fish on fridays--enough of my fellow students made comments on "must be because of the Catholics" that I finally got an understanding that it's not just Judaism that has weird food decrees. Unfortunately, back then there wasn't a fallback alternative at the cafeteria--you ate their rotating selection, be it fish, mystery meat, or liver and onions. (That changed sometime after I graduated--burgers were always available, if you wanted to stand in the much longer line for them.) Fortunately the fish wasn't all that bad.
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Hey, you, Miss GorgeousGirl... I'd reeeeelly love to nekk in Heaven. How do I know? Follow our example. I’m not of this world, girly; I’m of Heaven Above, soon to return: everything we do, everything we say needs to be focused on achieving our Final Goal, the Great Beyond where we can have everything. So, if you close your precious eyes anymore to the vertical, don't; open ‘em up to the possibility of dreaming big like no one else so you can live like no one else. Join me for an endless plethora of possible scenarios Upstairs. And, yes, I will be in the first battalion of young men to serve you and love you in our overwhelming-sextillion-eons. What a wonderFULL, fab-you-lous opportunity we have for eternal volumes of love. Won’t you join me?
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