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Discipline and accountability...
Mar. 6th, 2019 08:11 amToday is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
Forty years ago I had a very Catholic girlfriend. At the time, I thought I might spend the rest of my life with her (& we all know how that turned out). College was her first experience of secular schooling. She was also the the 4th of 6 children and the first not to enter religious life. While we were still together, I did my student teaching stint with the local order of the Christian Brothers. It was during that time that I started giving something up for Lent.
It’s a habit I’ve continued to observe most years since. No, I’m not a Catholic. Never took that step (neither is she any longer, by the way). However, the discipline of it appeals to me. It’s a bit artificial; for me something that’s marked arbitrarily on the calendar, determined by the lunar cycle, not my personal theology.
It’s an issue of exercising control for a set period of time. As a man who’s had weight issues most of his adult life, for most of it really major weight issues, it’s a challenge I’ve felt I needed, no, I need to rise to.
The issue of control is a strange one for me. I’ve been off of anything with wheat/barley/rye/gluten for almost 6 1/2 years. In many ways, it amazes me. It’s been seriously easier than I had expected it to be. For someone who never met a slice of bread he didn’t like, the ease of this move still astounds me. Bread, pastry, cookies, pasta, cereals, things I had nearly daily are all eliminated, unless they’re GF & even at that the GF alternatives no longer daily inclusions. I rarely have the craving for them.
It’s something I feel incredibly grateful for. It hasn’t been a battle, likely due to the clarity I have on a gut level (all puns intended) of what gluten containing foods where doing to me rather immediately. As an MD, I saw thousands of people over the years with an inability to stop self damaging behaviors like alcohol abuse and smoking. Food consumption of things detrimental, is especially pernicious.
People recognize how hard this can be for many; evidence the frequency I hear, “I’m so sorry,” when someone hears I’m severely gluten intolerant. I’m actually grateful the awareness of the problem has allowed me to walk away from the offending foodstuffs with a very unexpected ease. Why I couldn’t do that before that awareness, but could afterwards still surprises me.
So, Lent began this morning and chocolate has stopped. Chocolate is my usual Lenten go to sacrifice. Occasionally, it’s been something else, but the year it was coffee, everyone around me did penance. I’m posting thus as an admission, an attempt at accountability. I make no commitment now, if I’ll take chocolate back after Easter. Until then, bye bye.
Forty years ago I had a very Catholic girlfriend. At the time, I thought I might spend the rest of my life with her (& we all know how that turned out). College was her first experience of secular schooling. She was also the the 4th of 6 children and the first not to enter religious life. While we were still together, I did my student teaching stint with the local order of the Christian Brothers. It was during that time that I started giving something up for Lent.
It’s a habit I’ve continued to observe most years since. No, I’m not a Catholic. Never took that step (neither is she any longer, by the way). However, the discipline of it appeals to me. It’s a bit artificial; for me something that’s marked arbitrarily on the calendar, determined by the lunar cycle, not my personal theology.
It’s an issue of exercising control for a set period of time. As a man who’s had weight issues most of his adult life, for most of it really major weight issues, it’s a challenge I’ve felt I needed, no, I need to rise to.
The issue of control is a strange one for me. I’ve been off of anything with wheat/barley/rye/gluten for almost 6 1/2 years. In many ways, it amazes me. It’s been seriously easier than I had expected it to be. For someone who never met a slice of bread he didn’t like, the ease of this move still astounds me. Bread, pastry, cookies, pasta, cereals, things I had nearly daily are all eliminated, unless they’re GF & even at that the GF alternatives no longer daily inclusions. I rarely have the craving for them.
It’s something I feel incredibly grateful for. It hasn’t been a battle, likely due to the clarity I have on a gut level (all puns intended) of what gluten containing foods where doing to me rather immediately. As an MD, I saw thousands of people over the years with an inability to stop self damaging behaviors like alcohol abuse and smoking. Food consumption of things detrimental, is especially pernicious.
People recognize how hard this can be for many; evidence the frequency I hear, “I’m so sorry,” when someone hears I’m severely gluten intolerant. I’m actually grateful the awareness of the problem has allowed me to walk away from the offending foodstuffs with a very unexpected ease. Why I couldn’t do that before that awareness, but could afterwards still surprises me.
So, Lent began this morning and chocolate has stopped. Chocolate is my usual Lenten go to sacrifice. Occasionally, it’s been something else, but the year it was coffee, everyone around me did penance. I’m posting thus as an admission, an attempt at accountability. I make no commitment now, if I’ll take chocolate back after Easter. Until then, bye bye.
