Why
I Gave Up Giving Up
by Rob Cottignies
The word ‘fasting’ has its root in an Old English term
meaning ‘voluntary abstinence from food and drink’. This idea is commonly
associated with religious observance but we all do it every day. Any period
between meals is a fast, which is why in the morning we are known to break
it.
Each of the world’s three biggest religions has its own
version of a ceremonial time of fasting.
Yom Kippur (‘day
of atonement’) is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, which is
currently in its 5,781st year. On the tenth day of the month of Tishrei,
Jews practice five prayer services from sundown on the tenth until the
following day’s sundown. During this period, the devout are not allowed to eat,
drink, or clean their bodies in any way, including brushing their teeth. Through
these acts of abstinence, they seek forgiveness for the sins of themselves and others
and ask God for the year until the next Yom Kippur to be prosperous.
Ramadan is the ninth
month of the Islamic calendar, which is currently in its 1,442nd
year. This period celebrates Allah guiding the prophet Muhammad with
revelations that are now in the Quran. From sunrise to sunset on every day of
Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food, drink, physical pleasure, and even
medication. This teaches them self-control as they empathize with and give
charity to the less fortunate.
Ash Wednesday
begins the annual 40-day period known as Lent. Physical ashes (commonly
from burned palm leaves) are applied to Christians’ foreheads in the shape of a
cross to symbolize repentance (acknowledgement of sins) and the fact that
everybody dies (ashes to ashes).
An Old English word meaning ‘lengthen’ (as in days of
Spring growing “longer”) gives us Lent. According to the Bible, Jesus
fasted for 40 days in the desert while resisting temptations of Satan. During
Lent, followers do not eat meat on Fridays (explained later in this article)
and give up an everyday luxury such as smoking, social media, or hot sauce, for
the entire period.
…
(How about a quirky story after that history lesson?)
A few years ago, I read a book about the world’s
religions, cleverly titled The World’s Religions.
Included were explanations of Yom Kippur, Ramadan, and
Lent. I have never been religious but the idea of voluntarily abstaining from a
small part of everyday life intrigued me.
Since it was early March (and because the idea of not
eating for most of a day horrified me), I decided to give up hot sauce for
Lent.
This may sound trivial but was a big deal for someone
who puts hot sauce on almost everything- Cholula on rice, hot taco sauce on
eggs, El Yucateco (green) on pizza, and sriracha on most of the remainder.
(This example of pickiness should demonstrate how
serious I am about hot sauce and why it was an appropriate sacrifice.)
Starting March 5th of that year, I ate many
typical meals that would have tasted splendidly with their respective hot sauces,
yet denied myself with pride (and several instances of whining and pouting).
…
I gave up after three weeks.
22 days into the 40-day period, I convinced myself
that lasting more than half of Lent without hot sauce was a worthy
accomplishment.
What happened?
While talking with my dear friend Sam, who gave up
alcohol for Lent, we decided life was too short to deny ourselves goodness.
Of course, many people around the world have little
goodness, but why should I not embrace what I have by enjoying it? How arrogantly
pompous was it for me to say, ‘I’m going to refuse one of the wonderful things
in my life for six weeks for no real reason'?
(No reason for me. I understand why Christians do it.
Sort of.)
And ‘no reason’ goes straight to my second cause of
ceasing the denial- there was no point to me doing it. I study religions but am
not religious, so depriving myself hot sauce ultimately hurt only me because I
do not subscribe to the implications.
It was a nice experiment and I applaud those who stick
with their periods of self-denial, like Sam successfully did. Kudos.
(I planned on doing this again during a
religious period or other random phase but, at the time of this writing have
not.)
Having known people who lasted for all of Lent only to
binge on Easter – missing the point entirely – I did not return to hot sauce in
an extravagant manner. I had an average meal with an average amount of hot
sauce on it.
Self-discipline and moderation were the goals.
…
[Here is where I change direction to criticize Lent.]
You can see from the beginning of this article there
are several versions of fasting, but I think Lent is the most curious.
The idea of not eating
meat once per week for a month and a half stems from suffering as Jesus
suffered before he was killed.
Admirable notion but does
giving up chicken sandwiches once per week really equal being nailed to wood,
stabbed, and exposed to the elements until death?
…
Non-land animals such as
fish are not considered ‘meat’ and loopholes have been found to allow eating beavers
and capybara, since they live near water.
(Picking which rules to
follow must be wonderful.)
For another tidbit, going
meatless only applies to people over 14 years of age.
I have seen friends who never
practiced Christianity subscribe to the no-meat policy. When asked why, they usually
gave the verbal equivalent of a shrug.
They just blindly did it
because of tradition and/or obligation. How is that honoring anything?
To make it a bit more
ridiculous, I knew somebody who gave up shots of alcohol for Lent.
More specifically, he
gave up shot-glasses, not alcohol nor drinking small amounts of it. The liquid’s
vessel was the target of his abstention. I naturally laughed at this idea until
discovering he was serious.
…
Back to the Friday thing,
do people actually think that is a requirement of getting into Heaven?
'Well, you cheated on
your spouse a bunch of times and coveted your neighbor's snowblower, but you
had pizza for a few Fridays out of every year so come on in.'
To the contrary: 'So you
donated a lot of time to charity and belonged to a respectable family but ate a
hamburger in late March once so you must go downstairs.'
(These were silly
examples but hopefully you get the point.)
Just be a decent person.
Doing things based on centuries-old rules, which have probably been
mistranslated throughout their journey, is a waste of time and perfectly good
hot sauce.