Sacrifices

I was not brought up in what would be considered a "traditional" Christian home.  My mother was Anglican but was excommunicated after divorcing her first husband.  My father had been educated in a Catholic school but was a self-declared agnostic.  We celebrated Christmas and Easter in a secular manner.

It was a surprise, at age 11, to learn about Lent from a friend whose family was more devout.  I'd offered her some chocolate and she turned it down, saying that she'd given up sweets for the duration.

Lent is a ritual fasting, from Ash Wednesday until Palm Sunday.  It's a reminder that Jesus spent 40 days in the desert being tempted by evil before his triumphant return to Jerusalem.  It's not unlike the Islamic observance of Ramadan in that it's a time of sacrifice and spiritual reflection.

The general rule is that every person 14 years or older must abstain from meat, and items made with meat, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent - hence "fish on Fridays".  However many modern Christians choose to abstain from some personal vice such as smoking, or in my friend's case, chocolate.

My first husband, I'll call him "Tom", claimed to be Christian although he never attended church in all the years I knew him, except for weddings, funerals, or his parents' church's annual spaghetti dinner.  He didn't observe Lent either and ridiculed me when I started to do so in deference to his parents.

One year, at the suggestion of a friend, I chose to become vegetarian for Lent.  "Tom" spent the entire time making a show of checking labels and inspecting every single item of food that I prepared.  He also mocked my choice further by making meat-heavy dishes for himself.  Privately I believed that he missed the point of the observance, or simply didn't care.

To this day I continue to honour Lent, usually by giving up one of my favourite food items.  Most often I eschew what I refer to as "the three Cs": chocolate, cola, and cookies.  It can be difficult but I find myself healthier at the end of it.  This year, however, I plan to do something different; a much more radical departure that will affect my daily routine in a fundamental way.

I want to abstain from social media.  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. 

The TV news is bad enough, but whoever invented the saying "bad news travels fast" had nothing on the internet.  Every day I see people sharing horror stories about disgusting behaviour of entitled people, the latest political blunder, a mass shooting, or a disaster of some kind.  It makes me worry about the future of humanity and I long for the days when there was no internet or 24 hour news cycle.

It's time to unplug for a while.  Internet obsession can damage careers, relationships, and home life.  At present, I spend more than four hours a day on the internet and I'm beginning to neglect my responsibilities.  This has to be nipped in the bud.

See you in 40 days.

In case of emergency, there's still such a thing as a telephone.