Apparently some gods think if you don't eat some crap you'd usually eat for a couple days you're a good guy.
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!