"Got arrested at the Mardi Gras for jumpin' on a float"

Yes, I will have that song running through my head all day! My man MCA's got a a beard like a billy goat. I suppose these things happen, mostly to me it would seem,  but I do sort of hope that the Beastie Boys fans out there now find themselves with a wild urge to "Shake Your Rump"

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Mardi Gras. Literally "Fat Tuesday", not to be confused with Foie Gras which is literally gross (IMO) but definitely something that someone would probably indulge in on Mardi Gras. Wonder if the phrase, Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we shall die was coined on Fat Tuesday.

Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season. Forty-six days of fatalistically enduring giving up something. Well, if you talk to some folks that's really the impression that you would get. It never ceases to amaze me how much people who present themselves as being pious and devout can bitch and moan about their Lenten sacrifice. Pretty much misses the point. I can imagine a cartoon with some chicky complaining about how hard it is to give up Diet Coke for Lent with  Jesus sitting next to her commenting,"If you think that's bad, let me tell about what I gave up."

I am a bit more esoteric in my denials. Last year, I "gave up" thinking. I have a propensity for overthinking which leads to horrible chains of anxiety-ridden, what-if thinking. It is much more of a spirit-blocker than chocolate or soda or booze. I forget exactly how I phrased it but I didn't use "give up" because semantically it creates an illusion of lack and  monkeys hate lack. That is where people get so hung up they focus on what they are loosing and completely miss out on what they are gaining.

I personally think that as a whole people are so bounded into the rote that they miss the lesson. How much does it really effect you spiritually to give up something unhealthy if you fail to replace it with something healthy in that same time period. Some people give up the same thing, every year, year after year, for their entire lifetimes, what did they gain from that? An illusion of self-control...the ultimate self-deception.

So, I don't know what I am going to do. I have a my Lenten reader, and I'll probably read the beginning of that at some point today. Largely, it seems like the answer is already in the air. The situation for the next like eight weeks in my life...woooweeee, let's just leave it at this: perhaps this Lent I need to give up my trust in myself.

Have a great day everyone! Stay well!