For the next few days, adding up to a total of 40, my friend Miranda is observing Lent and removing 'vices' from her lifestyle (this year it's booze and wheat).
I've been inspired by her resolve in the past but it seems that every year Lent rolls around and, having never observed any real christian tradition as a child, except for the odd Sunday every 3 years when my grandmother would come to town and suddenly I'd be Anglican (I'm not counting christmas and easter of course - they're more like turkey and egg holidays), every year I forget about Lent, missing this chance to participate in a tradition of anti-consumerism. And, unlike other traditions, who are seen as benefits for the economy and so paraded before the consumer for weeks if not months prior to the day, I become aware of this 'holiday' only after it has already started - and I hesitate to be the bandwagon girl who observes Lent for only 31 days.
But why not? If I think about, and I try not to, there are many things in my life that could be considered vices, or even addictions, and could use a break from my life be it 40 or 31 or even 4 days. Some are easy to remove and some are not.
Take for example coffee (lindsay reaches for a sip before continuing)...I would hesitate to say I'm addicted to it and yet those rare days that I choose not to have coffee are few and far between (and usually hazy). Several years ago in university, I decided I needed to stop drinking coffee for at least a year due to a book I read, appropriately named Coffee. The first few weeks of life without coffee I felt the effects of removing an addiction, socially and physically - the massive headaches, the shaking hands, the smell of coffee taunting me, and the questioning I got from people who knew me as a coffee drinker (my mother!). Thankfully however, I loved tea and after several months it became easier to turn down that delicious bean juice. Before I knew it I had gone a year and two months without a cup of java and I was so proud of myself that I decided one cup wouldn’t hurt (oh it was gooood…). And then I decided a mug a week was ok, especially if it was socially responsible coffee. Fast forward to today where I’m sometimes buying coffee from gas stations and (gasp!) Starbucks just because there’s no other alternative. Ah addictions…it’s a slippery slope. (Lindsay takes a anther sip of the sweet nectar of the gods).
Recently I’ve been wondering if I’m also addicted to my computer - email, news, photography, entertainment, music and even now, though I'm 'creative writing', it's creative time spent on a computer. But how do you kick this addiction without dropping off the face of the planet? And although granted soon I will be working on a boat and far removed from any "asdfghjkl;" for days at a time, forcibly placed into computer rehab, undoubtedly as soon as my sea legs reach land, I will seek out an internet cafe to at least make contact with the boy - I'm pretty sure that's against protocol for other rehab programs.
Perhaps I need to limit my computer time and monitor the hours wasted. Perhaps I will read a book called "Computer" and go cold turkey for a year. Needless to say, and however I deal with it, of all my addictions this seems to be that hardest to kick - here comes the shaking hands again.
