Wow, those kids eating trash in some landfull in Mumbay, Rio, Lagos, etc must be, like, the best people ever, think about all the things they are giving up. But I agree, not drinking soda is a tremendous sacrifice too.
Heh, I'm sure they'd take the money in that case too. I think it's just more about putting a Lent-style fast to some use in benefiting others at the same time.
I didn't get the ashes (was stuck at community college all day, and only by the grace of God [ironic, no?] was I able to get a ride home without waiting another 4 hours for my family) and I had meat for dinner (only because the only thing we had for all 5 of us to eat was hot dogs and tater tots). But we all agreed that God would understand.
Apparently some gods think if you don't eat some crap you'd usually eat for a couple days you're a good guy.
I'm giving up not eating kebab. Actually I had one of those sandwich yesterday and I usually have one on Good Friday...and maybe, I'm going to eat it in front of Notre Dame, if the weather is good enough. . That's what I call being a glorious atheist
Oh, a challenge, I like that! I am going to eat a bologna sausage sandwich inside the Bologna cathedral on Good Friday! Ha! Beat that!
And some people think that just because it's January 1st it's a good time to make big change in your life. So what? It's an excuse to prove to yourself, and others, that you're a better person and that you're not held back by a vice. I'm not doing this for any particular religious reasons as I'm not beholden to any religion I'm doing this because I want to do it and the heavy syrup and sugars in pop aren't good for you. If I break down in a week or two and drink a Pepsi then I've only let myself down I think God or any other deity out there will overlook it seeing as how my vices on Earth have no impact on my entry into Heaven so long as I have Belief. So, from my point of view, giving up something bad for Lent (or taking up something good) is no different than making a New Year's resolution, but I'd argue it's better. A NYR doesn't give you a time-frame you just stop (or start) and hope for the best. With Lent you at least are given a time period and chances are if you make it through that 40 days then you're good to go for even longer. And people eating garbage in 3rd World Nations? What does that have to do with anything? You realize that's a non sequitur, right? Their lifestyles, hardships and rewards are completely different than mine. I'm not saying I'm any better a person because of my sacrifices or any worse-off because of my problems. I hate that argument. I mean, for example, I can't be pissed off that I have to get the suspension in my car replaced at the cost of $100s of dollars because some poor person living on the otherside of the planet in a 3rd world naiton doesn't have clean water? Bullshit. I'm not saying my problem(s) are worse than theirs I'm just saying that for my situation it is a problem and a hardship. If I can give up a piece of my modern First World life style for a month and a half that makes me a slightly better person. Am I better person than someone living on the otherside of the planet who would kill to have a taste of Pepsi rather than drinking sewage water out of a drainage ditch? Of course not. You cannot compare the two of us we live in very different worlds where the sacrifices, rewards, vices and virtues are all very different. I simply compare my life to my situation and situation of my peers and contemporaries as well as those who live on the same level of social status that I do. On the whole I do live a better life right now even with all of the problems I have than a person living Third World and I'm grateful for that and I wish more could be done to help those people and I've contributed to charities and such to help them but I do not personally believe those charities are massively helpful and are band-aids on a severed limb. Hell, if anything, those people are better people than me because with all of the problems they have they're probably on the whole happier and have less to complain about or at least their complaints make mine look petty and irrelevant (which in comparison they are.) But comparing our two lives is unfair to both of us. I mean, gosh, I should be happy that my car even has a suspension that sort-of works when people traveling by horse-and-wagon didn't even HAVE suspensions! I'm sorry, modern lifetime, I should be happy!
That they are both silly? Even conceding your argument (which I don't, obviously)... an excuse to be a better person? Wow. How incredibly convenient! If by "better", you mean "equally silly".
You're a deliquent, you don't eat inside a museum This is irrational. Works only if catholics are watching you doing that, all the fun is in the provocation
Ok, I consider myself outclassed. Ah, good point! Maybe we should mint a new acronym for you, like ft;dr. The meaning is left to the reader as an exercise.
When I hear the words "dry rub", all that comes to mind is barbecue, and people rubbing coarse powder into meat.
Since I gave up organized religion long ago, I am instead going to, like Trekker, treat Lent as an enhanced New Years Resolution period, so to speak. So...I'm going to attempt to give up being single. I've had my eye on a certain lady for a while, so, why wait any longer?