Ash Wednesday Observances

I'm not Catholic (although I went to a Catholic school for six months, sort of - it's a long story), but my aescetic, pleasure-abjuring, guilt-seeking Scandinavian heritage appreciates the notion of Ash Wednesday and the Catholic Lenten tradition of giving something up for 40 days.

In the past, I've given up a number of petty pleasures and vices - swearing (several times - and it's difficult), potato chips, sugar, throttling those who irk me, that kind of thing.

Now, if you know the Fraters like I know the Fraters, you gotta know that giving up the Big "A" has gotta be hard. So the start of JB's Ash-Wednesdayan post looked like a major switch:

In past years I've given up beer.

Whoah.

I read that, and sat for a moment. That's dedication, I thought. I mean, I don't have the attachment to hooch that JB, Chad, Brian and (especially) (Especially!) (No, Especially!!!) Atomizer do - drinking has never been, as JB puts it, my "steady companion "; I routinely go weeks without a drink, months without any alcohol in the house (at the moment my stockpile is a bottle of wine that's sat unmolested atop my 'fridge for eight months, and a single lone Heineken that's been in the fridge since Christmas of 2004). The closest I come to having a debilitating vice is the blog you're reading right now.

So I was ready to whisper "good on ya, JB"...

...until I read further:

...Other times wine. I just never thought that I could make the commitment to giving up all booze--I mean, that would be crazy talk right?

[SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH]

Giving up one variety of drinking is a sacrifice?

That's like swearing off truckstop hookers, but switching to call girls to compensate! You're not one iota light in the sacrifice department - just changing the dosage and delivery!

I mean, I'm a little foggy on my Catholic practices, but does one go to one's priest and say "I went and gave up gambling! except for slots, horses, texas hold 'em, craps, sports book, blackjack, pitching pennies and playing the numbers. OK, I'm really only giving up roulette. That counts, though, right?

To be fair, JB seems to have seen the error of his ways:

Well this year JB is giving up booze. All of it.

Well, now we're talking, anyway.

This is especially hard this week since "My" band is opening for an act on Friday and we are being paid in free drinks...

To be fair, we are swerving past "genuine sacrifice" and into "existential horror", now.

And thence to "crazy talk":

So with this in mind, I would like to challenge the rest of the Fraters gang to follow JB's lead and give up the hooch this Lent. Yes, Atomizer that includes you. Think of how good that Easter martini will taste after 6 weeks of teetotalling!

Atomizer without booze? That's like Mount Doom without lava.

Best of luck, JB.

Me? Hm. What to give up?

I gotta think about this.

Posted by Mitch at March 1, 2006 12:05 PM | TrackBack