CafeChatNoir

I’m not a particularly religious person, and I’ll be perfectly honest – my overall faith is shaky at best.  But, hey whatever works for you, works for you.  (Though I do sincerely hope it’s not based on “everyone else is going to hell.”)  When asked my denomination, the best I can come up with is “Vanilla Christian.”

That being said, I have come to appreciate the whole idea of Lent.*  Much more so when I discovered that the Vatican apparently said at some point that Lent didn’t have to be so much about giving something up as much as trying to do a little more good.  (No, I have no citation for this – it is simply something I read somewhere and it stuck with me – it could be complete manufactured nonsense aimed at getting people to stop giving up broccoli for Lent and encouraging them to volunteer at the library.)

There is a common theme out there of it takes 21 days to make or break a habit – yet studies have shown it takes more along the lines of 6 weeks.  Well – 40 days of Lent fills that bill quite nicely.  And you get a bye on Sundays to boot.  It’s perfect if you’re trying to make a few changes, regardless of whether it’s ditching a bad habit, creating a good one, or both.

For whatever reason – kicking it off in February seems to ever so slightly less arbitrary than January 1 – if only because Mardi Gras is a moving target every year.  That, and Lent has an end date, which New Year’s Resolutions do not.  If after 40 days, you say, “To hell with this, I did it for 40 days, hated it, it’s not an ingrained habit by now and obviously it isn’t going to be anytime soon!” you can chuck it out the window and give it another whirl next year.  Because you at least gave it a go for a decent amount of time, whereas with NYR’s there is no end in sight and you have no marker of “I have done well” or “I suck at this” and given that, one tends to trash it all in the space of  two and a half weeks.

That all being said, I am ditching the pool hall for Lent to get rid of a bad habit (so far, not too bad) and picking up the better habit of attempting to be a better homeowner/housekeeper/cook.  (One of the three a day, not all every day.)  Things are a tad more sketchy on that front, but I’m still mindful of it – and I’ll either have a few better routines in place by Easter and I can carry those throughout the rest of the year, or I’ll still be a slob.  But I’m still giving it the old college try anyway.

So yes, I am co-opting Lent for my own selfish personal growth.  But in the end, it should not just better for me, but others as well.  So it’s not death-by-lightning worthy, right?

We’ll know if I post on Easter.

*I certainly did NOT get this as a child.  We didn’t muck around with Lent and I could not fathom why my Catholic friends would give up things such as chocolate rather than something from the vegetable family.  It seemed quite strange to not pick a path with a better chance of success.