I’m Giving Up Twitter for Lent
You don’t have to be religious to see the value in temperance
I tell people I was raised “very Catholic,” by which I mean that my parents usually dragged me to mass once a week unless they were too tired or forgot or just didn’t feel like it. But whenever we didn’t go, they’d feel really guilty about it, which is the Catholic way. I had a first communion and cried when I had to drink the wine because it tasted gross, and I assumed my distaste for the wine — the blood of Christ — signaled my imminent eternal damnation. I am now what you’d call a “lapsed” Catholic (unless my mom is reading this, in which case I’m not lapsed at all). I don’t go to mass and I don’t do confession unless oversharing on the internet counts. Yet there is one Catholic tradition I still take part in every year without fail: Lent.
Lent, for those who aren’t familiar, is a 40-day semi-fast. It’s supposed to be a milder version of Jesus’ 40-day fast in the desert. Traditionally, people give up meat instead of giving up food altogether, though Wikipedia tells me some people actually do the latter. Good for them! When I was a kid, my family would “give up” meat for Lent, but only red meat; chicken was fine. I’m sure some True Believers will object to this seemingly blasé attitude toward the solemn tradition. In our defense, my parents take Lent very…
