“I gave up candy for Lent,” Franklin says for no apparent reason.
“I gave up men,” Patti responds sitting on the other side of the counter.
“Patti’s a lesbian!” Franklin yells.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she says in exasperation.
“I gave up giving up,” Nance says staring off into space.
“How else is Franklin supposed to take you’re giving up men?” Val asks Patti.
She shrugs her shoulders.
They all stop and look at me.
“I gave up religion,” I say.
“Oh Great” Franklin exclaims as he gets up from the stool beside the one that I’m sitting on.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before I asked for all of this advice?”
“Why God Why? …Why does nothing here make sense! … Why God why? … Show your hand?” are the very legitimate questions asked in the musical Miss. Saigon.
Well, I know the answer to why nothing here makes sense.
I’m at the Breakfast Club.
The “Why God Why?” question is a bit more difficult to answer.
I suppose that is why the Catholics invented Lent … so that we can position ourselves to ourselves for God’s answers which apparently come every Easter. So for forty days or thereabouts, we get ready … because we know God’s answers are the biggest answers! They’re the ones we want the most!
Then Hallmark bought the rights of Lent from the Catholics and it has become this broader tradition where even non-believers participate. (Hallmark can do most anything! They’re like Google and Wall Mart!)
I gave up giving up.
Sitting here in the afterglow of the caffeine and adrenaline rush that I get every morning at the Breakfast Club I think that Nance has it most right.
God would prefer that we give up giving up.
God gave us this life. It’s the ultimate present! Too many of us give up on it! Or pieces of it! Or we settle to be less than we are capable of being. Or we give ourselves away to others and let them determine who we are. We screw up God’s ultimate gift to us.
And that is life’s biggest sin!
As you can probably tell, I’m not into Lent all that much.
I think that God wants us to celebrate this life! She would rather us dance for forty days straight! And she’s probably making St. Augustine dance throughout eternity because he’s the one who thought up most of this depravity stuff. We should give up the things … and the people … who stop us from being … us.
“It’s tearing me apart to hold you tight. Let’s dance like it’s the last night of the world.”
That’s how I think that God wants us to spend Lent!
