It's the beginning of Lent! I don't know why I put that exclamation point there, because it's not like its Christmas or my Birthday or some other exciting holiday. In fact, Lent is so ascetic, I guess I shouldn't be "celebrating" it at all. But I digress.
Today is Ash Wednesday. Luckily my bangs are long so the mangled dirty cross on my forehead will remain mostly hidden. (While putting a big cross on your forehead is obviously designed to advertise that you're participating in Lent, most people just think my face is dirty. The worst of it was at BYU, where when you explained it to them they were just shocked and abhorred that a Catholic was on their campus. Might as well have been a "666").
From here on out, for the next 40 days, I'll be doing what I do each Lent. Fasting. It started with my Jordanian friend/roomie in college, where we Catholics banded together and fasted Greek Orthodox sytle, i.e. vegan, because that was how her mother raised her. Eventually I decided that vegan was a little too hard core for me, so now I eat seafood, but still no meat or eggs or dairy.
More than anything, it's a good yearly challenge. Can I do it? And it's not like a diet where you can cheat, or like a promise you can break. This is LENT. God sees all, ya dig? No hiding from him. I can proudly say I haven't knowingly cheated in 10 years. (I'm going to go ahead and ignore mistaken consumption of gelatin or butter or some other hidden ingredient now and then).
And I would just like to say that I've never had as nice a cross as the dude in the picture. I mean, you can even tell that it's a cross! Usually mine is a mangled blotch. Lucky bald dude.
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