Mardi Gras

new orleans 086_peIn the Catholic calendar, Fat Tuesday leads us into Lent, the time of fasting. It turns out that getting wild and crazy and extravagant is a spiritual practice, as well as giving things up and doing without.

Have you learned more from extravagance or asceticism?

3 thoughts on “Mardi Gras”

  1. Interesting question. In terms of my own practice, I’m not sure which, if either, has taught me more. However, I did learn something from a former client, an Episcopalian, who said he “used to be an alcoholic.” Every year, he would give up drinking for lent. I learned to try and get every bit of business with him done ahead of time before the beginning of Lent so that I could avoid him as much as possible until Easter. Otherwise, without his daily dose of wine, he was so grumpy I dreaded dealing with him. So what I learned is that, if one wishes to give up something as a spiritual practice, try to choose something that will not have negative impacts on other peoples’ lives.

  2. I’d have to say asceticism. Too much of anything leads to a predictable outcome, but giving up teaches us what we can and cannot live without.

  3. What a great question, “have you learned more from extravagance or asceticism?” For some these are linked – knowing that you must do without something, you celebrate (to excess..) what you have at hand. It raises the question as to what the purpose of the fasting is. Does one simply think that this exercise in spiritual discipline is self-denial? Or is it an exercise in contemplating voluntarily what we are tempted to substitute for our real values. The story of Jesus’ private tests relate to a bribe, a goad and a dare as to what/who we worship. The story of the public test related to who Jesus served and the rejection by those close to him. Now those are things to ponder, evoked by a temporary shift in habits.

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