[Halkun thread] Talkin' about Lent. It's why they call it an "ashtray"

halkun

Ok, here's the skinny.

I am an atheist, but every year for the last decade or so I practice Lent. This wild fact about my personality drives my other atheist friends up the wall. Now keep in mind, I don't go to mass and have a priest put a cross on my brow. There is a standing ashtray outside my local Quik-Trip that I get the ash from. On the morning of Lent I swipe a fingerfull of schmutz from the bollard and rub a good application on my forehead.

During my day working retail, I'd get the "bro" looks from Catholics. I'll chat about what I'm giving up for 40 days, and my friends will facepalm behind me.

I guess I should say why I do this in the first place...

Once upon a time, I had a friend give up soda for "real" lent. He originally thought such a sacrifice would be something he wouldn't miss anyway and, hey, he could stand to lose the sugar intake. What happened was the caffeine withdraw kicked in. The poor guy was in hell for two weeks as his body adjusted. I laughed at him at first, calling him a baby until he challenged me to give up soda for a day or two. That was enough for me to see his side of the table, and it was also my first taste of drug withdraw.

After that, I decided that this whole "giving something up" was kind of interesting. I could better myself by giving myself a challenge, however instead of making it a deprivation based, I made it goal-orientated. The next year I gave up soda myself. The year after that, I followed the plot of the movie "40 days and 40 nights". (I lost). But it's a tradition I started and it's a bit fun.

This year, I'm going all goal-orientated and creating a schedule of personal projects and following them though. I know I'm kind of breaking an already warped view of Lent now. I guess in this sense I'm giving up my free time by doing something productive.

So SE++, what are you doing for lent?

exist

that ash thing is gross dude

MrMonroe

seriously, you're just using stogie ash?

that's really disgusting

(although I would consider giving up liquor for Lent just as an experiment)

(I might have to find another way to get to sleep at night)

Fire Truck

I like giving stuff up for lent, as well, as an exercise in will and mindfulness. Haven't really given any thought to what I will give up this year.

Radius

yeah, that is a pretty gross place to get your ash.

Quoth

Last year I gave up cursing

I should probably do that again

halkun

Radius wrote:

yeah, that is a pretty gross place to get your ash.

Really? I never really known it to be *that* gross. It's just burnt tobacco and paper where they stab out the ends of the cigarette. I'm not digging in the bowl at the bottom, but where they stamp it out the ash on top. Hows it different than a dried palm frond? It's just plant ash.

Nechriah

My parents are Catholic and since I still live with them I end up going along with what they do for Lent, but there's no real sacrifice or commitment involved in that. Maybe I should try and give up something I'd actually miss this year, not sure what though.

I do like all the traditions that come with the Easter and Lent period. Every year we have the whole family together on pancake Tuesday and make an absurd amount of pancakes. This wasn't so great last year because my Dad had recently been diagnosed with coeliac disease, but we've found a good gluten-free pancake recipe now so this year's pancake Tuesday ought to be better (I know it's silly but even at 23 I still genuinely look forward to pancake day). Then we go to the Ash Wednesday mass the next evening and do the whole ash on forehead thing. We used to not eat any red meat or chocolate during the entire Lent period, but my Mum and brother have both developed iron deficiencies in recent years so we changed that to "no meat on Fridays, Ash Wednesday or Good Friday during the Lent period." Somehow this is still enough no-meat to give me steak cravings. On the plus side, during all my Lents I've learned how to make kickass tuna mornay and potato and egg salad.

Klyka

I thought this thread was about the poster "Rent" who is Asian.

I have no idea what "Lent" is and will now read up on it.

Bogey

3 threads in just over a week. Why don't you cool it for a bit?