Monday, March 13, 2006

Lenten Celebration

So technically Lent began almost 2 weeks ago, but since I generally take a better-late-than-never approach to life I figured why not start now? The problem is that 40 days is kind of a long time and I'm not that into Christ, so this will be more like a series of short sacrifices -- essentially a weekly test of my will power. The catch is this: I want you all (meaning my friends who read this + my dad) to help me come up with a list of 5-6 things that I should give up for one to two weeks at a time. I think that it makes more sense for someone else to choose my sacrifice because otherwise I'd just choose something really easy, like stop brushing my hair. Here is the list that my roommates and Matt's Buddhist roommate have suggested:

1) No TV
2) No fatty/sugary food & eating 9 fruits and vegetables each day
3) No lying (This one clearly isn't an option because the Buddhist insisted that sarcasm was a form of lying, and I can't give up sarcasm as I've forgotten how to be sincere)
4) Going to sleep by 11:30pm every week day , and 1 am on the weekend.

Before you start throwing suggestions my way, please keep the following things in mind:

1) The sacrifice or challenge should be something that actually would be difficult for me to do (like no TV for seven whole days, which may actually kill me).
2) The sacrifice or challenge should not cost more than $75 to accomplish -- I'm not made out of money here.
3) The sacrifice or challenge should be something that I can finish in no more than 2 weeks (so no challenges to do something physical for which I'd need longer than 2 weeks of training to accomplish).
4) If I fail to accomplish the sacrifice or challenge you suggested, you don't get anything. Rather, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you broke my will and have left me a pathetic shell of a person.

I was inspired to embark upon this little experiment when I heard a story about a priest who let his friends choose his Lenten sacrifice, which gave me the idea for asking for my friends' input. I was also inspired by MTV's True Life: I'm a competitive eater, which combined with my renewed interest in shotgunning beers, has inspired me to push the logical limits of my body and willpower. So get crackin' on those suggestions so that I can start this experiment by April.

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