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The Lenten season is upon us. For the non-Christians, agnostics, atheists, or the uninformed out there…
Lent is the season immediately preceding Easter where Catholics observe 40 days of fasting, abstinence and sacrifice which helps you prepare for the joy and celebration of Easter. During those 40 days it is customary to give up something from your daily life. This is called the “Lenten Sacrifice.”
The purpose of the Lenten Sacrifice is to strengthen and deepen one’s relationship to God by identifying with Christ’s suffering, death and eventual Resurrection. You commemorate what Christ did for you by doing some soul-searching, and then identifying a vice (or vices) that either diverts your focus from your own spiritual health or that prohibits you from meeting the tenets of your faith. Once identified, you then deprive yourself (or try to, at least) of said bad habit/s for the entire Lenten season. Typical examples are: no eating chocolate, no watching TV, no ritualistic morning pilgrimages to the Evil Green Empire (aka Starbucks), or becoming abstinent (good luck with that).
Every year I try to be creative in my Lenten Sacrifice, and so I put much thought into choosing something worthwhile to give up. The process usually involves me harkening back to the good ol’ days of my Catholic brainwashing…whoops…I mean education. I attended Catholic Schools from Kindergarten to 12th grade, and a lot of the core beliefs were repeated throughout the years over and over again, albeit at different levels of complexity (hence my brainwashing reference). Thus a lot of what I learned, despite it being so long ago, I still recall to this day since it was hammered into my brain time and time again. To that end, I remember something my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Krieg, said to us about Lent:
“Embrace the struggle.”
What she meant was that you need to choose something you indulge in that will be truly challenging if you try to remove it from your daily life. So if you don’t eat fast food, then giving that up is pretty pointless and stupid. You also need to refrain from doing something that is generally bad for you, so abstaining from gambling at a casino = good idea, but giving up reading books = bad idea.
What it really comes down to is – what bad habit will I miss and will be tough for me to give up?
Alternatively, there’s also the option of taking something on, rather than to stop doing something. I actually tried this during Lent last year and decided to do a good deed for another human being every day. It worked out pretty well, and I am happy to report that this behavior has persevered, as I continue to try to play the Good Samaritan role on a daily basis today. Although I admittedly fail on some days, and the task is more difficult that I originally expected, I think I’m a better person because of it. Embrace the struggle indeed.
One final note that most forget – the important thing is to eliminate or take on a practice with dedication to God in mind, not for its own sake. Sure, cutting out junk food from your diet is in and of itself a good thing, but it should be done as a sacrifice to God for it to be worthwhile and spiritually healthy. Whatever you choose should feel like a sacrifice, but not a punishment.
OK – Catholic education lesson is now over. You may think that I am bitter about my brainwashing and wanted to, in turn, brainwash you as well. Quite the contrary, as this just serves as background to what my Lenten Sacrifice is for this year.
I did the requisite soul-searching in order to discover a vice that I am currently guilty of. Here’s what I came up with…
I like stuff.
Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. Actually that’s quite an understatement. Change “accumulated” to “spent frivolously,” “a lot” to “a ridiculously insane amount,” and “stuff” to “excessive, needless things that are often beyond hope of personal utilization” and that paints a better picture of my situation.
Especially recently, as one benefit to this floundering economy that I’ve observed is that there are some pretty incredible deals out there. Struggling companies + need to avoid bankruptcy + huge markdowns on merchandise + my own personal success = more stuff for me. Just to give you an idea of the random stuff I’ve bought recently…
My purchases over the past few months have ranged from things for my apartment (Corner Me Shelving from DWR) to things for my brain (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell), from the extravagant (LV Damier Graphite Wallet) to the mundane (B&D Digital iron), from new age (Dior Homme Sneakers) to old school (Band of Outsiders Sperry Top Siders), from mountain gear (Burton Idiom 2.5L Continuum Jacket) to streetwear (BBC Reindeer Hoodie).
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
Suffice to say, I’ve spent some paper on a lot of stuff recently. So it was a natural choice for what my Lenten sacrifice should be. Basically, for the next 40 days (actually, 37 and counting since Ash Wednesday was three days ago), I’m not going to buy any material crap. BTW normally I wouldn’t use the word “crap” in the previous sentence, instead I would use another word that begins with “S” and rhymes with “quit,” but the other sacrifice I’m giving up for Lent is swearing.
So to sum it up: for the next 5 weeks there will be no buying stuff and no profanity in my life. None, zilch, zero, nada, wala lang.
Some ground rules I thought of in order to make this fair:
- Food is excluded, for obvious reasons
- Buying gifts for others is okay
- Asking someone else to buy something for me with the intention of paying them back later is not okay
- Buying “life staples” is okay (e.g. refilling my Metrocard)
- Traveling expenditures are okay (e.g. airline/bus/train tickets)
- In the event of an emergency or extenuating circumstances, the entire resolution goes out the window (e.g. if my apartment building burns down or if I lose my contact lenses)
Can I do it? I hope so! It certainly will be a struggle. I guess this blog can be considered my own personal collection of random stuff that I think is cool. It can also serve as an efficient way to keep track of all the things I intend on buying once Lent is over. Plus, I think it’ll be fun to look back some time in the future and remember what I’ve done here.
So there ya go – I hope you enjoy the ride for the next 40 days or so as much as I will. Maybe I’ll succeed, maybe I’ll fail miserably, but I do believe life is most interesting when you’re faced with challenges. I’m hoping to meet the challenge and learn a little about myself along the way. After all, it’s the journey that’s important and not the destination.
Let’s begin with these YSL (that’s YVES SAINT LAURENT for you commoners out there, hehe jk) Jonny Boots. These actually came out a few years ago, then they were re-released last season. I’ve seen these in person at the YSL boutique in Union Square in SF and they’re pretty sweet.
I am surrendering to the fact that by the time Lent is over these won’t be available in my size anymore …c’est la vie.
