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Well, it's almost lent. And that's probably not the strangest thing that's crossed my mind today. But it's more than likely the most controversial on the blog.
My oldest friend, Nathan, who currently resides in Maui, is diabolically opposed to all things religious. He uses a phrase (or perhaps he coined it) that amalgamates "ridiculous" and "religion": religulous. I can't help but appreciate a clever addition to my beloved English language. Here's what he had to say about God in an email to me back in December,
"The God in the Old Testament is a jealous God and proud of it. He is a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. And if one does not agree, they should re-read the Old Testament where Mr. Creator slain, burned & slaughtered over 30 million people.
The New Testament, although a huge improvement in terms of morality, isn't much better:
"It's a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries." --Berlinerlbau 2005
Needless to say, he's not enchanted with the notion of The Big Man Upstairs, the traditions us Catholics hold near and dear, and the book upon which all this is based. But I still am. I must say though, after living in Korea, the land of...well, The Strangest Place in the World, I've fallen away from the church. When I was living with the Lucas', we used to go every Saturday. It was quite a nice way to spend an hour. Matt and I attempted Sabbath obedience: we went once to a Catholic mass, but it was all in Korean and all the women wore creepy small veils. It was too much for me and we never went back. Keeping all that in mind, I still really like the whole notion of lent.
I like being akin to, you know, Jesus (I'm saying this sheepishly because, first, this is a public forum and society has told me this is a private topic, and second, because I know we're never really akin to the son of God...we just do our best to model His behaviour). Lent is supposed to mimic His 40-day stint in the desert with no food or water. So we're told to give something up or to start something new for lent. We are to sacrifice in some way.
I have to say, I like this idea. All religious pretenses aside, sacrifice is quite an amazing feat to accomplish. In an age when we can get anything we want, it's nice to think that sometimes we can give at least something up, be it junk food, money, or time. It's funny that all these things are vices: we could all use forty days without them.
Sometimes I reflect on sacrifice and if, in my Past Life with the Ghost, I made any. Some days I argue that yes, indeed I sacrificed everything, while on other days, I recognize that My Life was pretty good most of the time. I don't think sacrifice is necessary...I don't think we should be martyring our lives away, sticking around when getting the hell out is what we really want. Living my authentic life, my dream life, my life at peak performance...that's living. But, like every year, for a mere forty days, I'm going to give a little something so to recognize all that I have.
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