Annual Lenten Inquiry

[tyke1doe]

Well, I made it through 40 days without a soda or donuts. Unfortunately, I downed about four cans of soda Sunday. :)

[TheSeyMonsta]

Well, I made it through 40 days without a soda or donuts.

Thats great, I will continue to give more time as available. Glad you stuck with it...:)

[Baked Beans]

Well, I made it through 40 days without a soda or donuts. Unfortunately, I downed about four cans of soda Sunday. :)

Me too! I hate how I feel today though..:(

[Jim in NYC]

Well, I made it through 40 days without a soda or donuts. Unfortunately, I downed about four cans of soda Sunday. :)

So somebody explain to me again how this isn't just an extended exercise in binge-purge-binge syndrome?

[Big Pink Monkey]

So somebody explain to me again how this isn't just an extended exercise in binge-purge-binge syndrome?

I can't speak for Tyke, but the purpose of purgation is enlightenment. It requires reflection on the purge. Who were you in that deprivation? What purpose does the thing eschewed serve in your life? And sometimes breaking the fast in an extreme way can add to that reflection. If you do something habitually, you become ignorant of the effects it has on you. It simply becomes normal. Avoid it for 40 days and then binge and you might realize that it is harmful in ways that didn't when it was part of your normal routine.

[Jim in NYC]

I can't speak for Tyke, but the purpose of purgation is enlightenment. It requires reflection on the purge. Who were you in that deprivation? What purpose does the thing eschewed serve in your life? And sometimes breaking the fast in an extreme way can add to that reflection. If you do something habitually, you become ignorant of the effects it has on you. It simply becomes normal. Avoid it for 40 days and then binge and you might realize that it is harmful in ways that didn't when it was part of your normal routine.

If more than 1/100th of the people who indulge in this pantomime are thinking that deeply, I'll say nice things about Walshie for a month.

It's no different than a New Year's resolution; it's just easier to keep because there's a finite time limit to it. It's less about self-reflection than about doing things by rote (with a bit of Christian self-flagellation thrown in for spice). "It's forty days before the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, so I need to give something up. Better stock up beforehand, do my purge, and then I can binge my ass off later."