A few years ago when I was still with the D-News, I wrote a column about Lent, which Mormons don't observe although I wish we did. Anyhoo. I made the observation that I wanted to renounce fear for the season--fear of failing, fear of not having or being enough, fear of living. It was a column that resonated with many D-News readers (so maybe Mormons really should do Lent, after all?), and I received a basketful of lovely e-mails. I also received a funny letter from a reader in Michigan, who has been sending me his Lent plans ever since. Here's the e-mail I received from him yesterday.
Ms. Cannon,
Another year has passed and Lent is fast approaching. Today is Fat Tuesday with tomorrow being Ash Wednesday. As such it's time once again to perform some introspection and see where one might be able to improve one's standing. With this being an election year, I've decided that for Lent I will give up bribing politicians with hookers and booze.
As always, I said good luck with that.
4 comments:
Interesting concept--giving up fear for Lent. Which implies that it's a sacrifice to do so. How comfortable we become in our fears? Our way of understanding the world is filtered through them? Hope is scarier than fear? Another fear o' mine: to die, having never lived.
Word verif: crome empleck. Now that's just showing off. Croming one's empleck? A plain old regular empleck is good enough for this old boy.
As a Mormon kid in Catholic school, I always tried to give up something for Lent -- and even as a small person, I recognized the bonus of making it something worth losing, as opposed to the month-long loss of chocolate or carbonated beverages that some of my friends chose. But the idea of giving up fear? That's brilliant. I love it, and plan to steal it starting today.
This is fantastic. i could not be happier.
Giving up fear for forty days and forty nights is possible, but it always returns unbidden, but familiar.
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