I have a lot of Christian friends, who a.) faux-nag me for eating a turkey wrap on Friday, b.) Do not know the answers to my *trivial* questions about the random aspects of their religion. Not any of the important ones, meaning of life/life after death and so on, i.e: "Why is the symbol for Jesus that fishy thing?" They didn't know, but Wikipedia DOES. Google and Wiki are the closest things there are in the world to a known omnipresence. Contains most of the answers to life's questions, in a neutral, multiple-choice kind of way. c.) Go insane without the thing they gave up. It's funny. Even Teresa, who only drinks soda when she is not in the presence of her caffeine-restricting parents, gave up soda. (another gave up candy, but a last year gave up Facebook. HAH. I don't have one, but people get attached to it...)
Biiig sacrifice there. Is the point to give up one of your BIGGEST temptations? Or like give to charity instead? That sounds nice and all Jesus-y. Give something instead of taking away from yourself. Ease suffering and do stuff for other people, instead of making yourself more miserable so as to match them.
MORE suffering than currently exists in the world isn't going to help anything. Is that what Lent promotes? Suffering so that you can say you felt the pain and suffering and crap Jesus did? Hmmm, being stranded in the desert with no one to talk to but the SATAN *dun dun dun*... or not drinking coffee for a month and a half. *makes invisible scales with hands* Yep, pretty sure Jesus had it worse than those people just suffering from withdrawal syndrome, and it's not like any divinity would force us to suffer for them. "Yeah, I HATED it, and I'm mentally stronger than you or whatever probably, so why don't YOU give it a try? >:D" Naaaw...
Different point: Isn't weird how only Hispanic people feel free to use the name Jesus (with an accent)? It's not like Spanish-speaking countries aren't Christian, the name holds the same meaning. (Jesucristo, again with an accent somewhere. Maybe the suffix is the difference?) But if someone named their kid "Jesus" in English there'd be some kind of uproar. If not an uproar, definite confusion considering the fact that "JESUS!" is a common interjection. (most interjections/expletives fall under 4 categories: Religious, Sexual, Parental, Scatological. None of them happen to be inherently insulting, just kind of nonsense.) Example: "Jesus, come out of the PlayPlace!" "Jesus, will you please listen to me? It is NOT okay to stick jellybeans up other people's noses!" Which would probably lead to people thinking the parent/legal guardian/namer of this kid had anger-management problems of some sort...
FIPOGI!
Can you believe it? I went to a Catholic grade school. To this day, if a nun crosses my path, I superstiously take to me bed (<--Actually, just lay low or just don't make any MAJOR life decisions OR false moves) until the next day arrives. Rumor has it, if you walk under a ladder, while embracing a black cat, and then drop a wad of bill$ into the collection basket, this particular nun curse will be broken. I've never had the courage to try the remedy, though, because, hey, what if it doesn't work? Then what? Up a creek without a rosary?? (<-- O ye of little faith, huh?) Yup, I'd rather take to my bed. So what? I could use a nap, every now and again, anyhoo.
ReplyDeleteNow where was I? Oh, yeah: Ichthys! We made it a game! Every time you see one of those stylized fishies, or any fish for that matter, you quickly shout out "Itch this!" and punch the closest person to you (or the arm that belongs to someone you want to get back at) in the arm! Back in the day, we were easily amused.
As for that Make a Sacrifice-for-Jesus-Dangling-from-the-Cross-But-Not-the-Baby-Jesus, Lenty thing: I kiboshed that the year I gave up Lent for Lent.