Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Fasting and Visionaries and Karl's take on the whole shinnanigans.
Tue, 2006-02-28 09:18
#1
Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Fasting and Visionaries and Karl's take on the whole shinnanigans.
Shrove Tuesday so get your batter mix out guys. We're having a very fat day here! i bought a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
it has become trendy in recent times for mongerers of PC to go whoring the idea that rather than giving something up we should perform acts of charity. But I believe sacrifice is really important. Every other major world religion sees the real benefit of fasting and abstinence and we seem to be looking for the easy cop out.
So what can I give up? Alcohol? Already have. Fags? Feck off! So I suppose it's cakes and chocolate again.
Fasting is supposed to help meditation and can induce visions, so I recommend it to anyone struggling with their writing.
And finally...Karl Wiggins latest book 'it's been emotional' contains a very funny insite into the foibles of the Catholic Church - Karl hasn't asked (or paid) me to say this. To paraphrase, "Ash Wednesday" he writes "So named because the Roman Catholics wander around with burnt cinders smeared on their heads and starving" he goes on to have a one-to-one with his friend in a confessional-cum-pub about his sins, concluding that the Church an institution based on fear feeds on our guilt. Tis very good.
mykle
I think that it's worth bearing in mind that religious fasting is not done in the spirit of giving things up. It is a cutting back that is designed to strengthen will-power and resolve but most of all to bring a true sense of anticipation and occasion to the feast that follows.
Having said that - give up the fags jude :O)
poetjude
Rather than strengthening will powerthe spiritual gains are emphasised in Eastern traditions.
in Vaishnavism (Hindu if you insist) we have to be careful about our food, because what we eat decides our physical well being as well as our mental makeup. Eating very gross foods like animal meat and heavy or intoxicating food, may lead to the strengthening of animal qualities and lethargic nature in us.
Recent scientific research suggests that fasting may be healthful and, when engaged in carefully, may bring about heightened states of consciousness and sensibility. Traditionally, fasting in Christian tradition has been a widely used form of Asceticism and a penitential practice observed for the purpose of purifying the person or of atoning for sins and wrongdoing.
archergirl
Giving up the ciggies would be more healthful than any fasting you do...
*ducks behind soapbox*
poetjude
*waddles back into the thread coughing*
yeah I know...the spiritual benefits would be enormous - I just don't love myself that much yet!
archergirl
We were created by God, jude, and God is Love. You have all the love you need, already inside you...
mykle
With almost a sixth of the children in the UK classified as obese it seems likely that some aspects of our attitude to eating will need to change drastically.
Noting the present governments pro-active attitude to health I suspect that they will attempt new legislation that proposes to chop off everyones righthand - ostensibly to limit our capability to shovel food in quite as quickly - and force everyone to be a 'lefty' for their own good.
Of course somewhere along the line Blair would have to accept Tory help to quell a back-bench rebellion and it would end up being the left-hand that gets the chop :O)
archergirl
I noted with some amusement, whilst riffling through a 'Heat' magazine I accidentally carried home with one of the kids' paperwork (seriously), that what'sherface Jordan of the big breasts was photographed with her extremely large young/eldest child. It was noted in the article that said child has some sort of disorder that has rendered him nearly blind and also extremely overweight. The editor of the magazine clearly didn't check the photo that went with this heartrending article: abovementioned little big boy was photographed with one pudgy hand stuffed into a nearly-empty bag of crisps...
poetjude
I have all the love I need inside me but it's covered up with tar.
I think to give up smoking would be too much too soon. Not only is the UK tackling a serious obesity problem so is the Church. Ever seen a fat Hare Krishna?
archergirl
Hmmm. My father in law had a stroke in December 2004; the day of the stroke was his last day of ciggies, too, and he smoked at least thirty a day since 1940. He doesn't miss them, he says.
Come to think of it, I've never seen a Hare Krishna smoke, either...
poetjude
No - Hare krishna's don't eat meat, fish, eggs, don't smoke or drink have illicit smoke or gamble.
Having a stroke cannot 'scare' someone who isn't 'scared' (or actually bothered) about dying. People say "Oh death doesn't scare me." and that's the easiest thing to say. But when I was in that neurology hospital it is a different reality. People from all walks of life and of all ages totally bricking it. I felt a bit weird - as the Dr said - very few people are as offhand as me about the prospect of iminent death...
Being left permanently disabled might motivate me...i have an angiogram in a few weeks!
archergirl
ha ha! Actually, I think he quit because he was in hospital for nearly two months and the dragon-nurses wouldn't let him out for a fag, so it was an enforced quitting, rather than voluntary...still, did him no harm to quit...
mykle
Jude's comment "Eating very gross foods like animal meat and heavy or intoxicating food, may lead to the strengthening of animal qualities and lethargic nature in us." made me wondered exactly which animal qualities were so worrying.
Somehow I conjoured up a vision of Aslan, suddenly fat, lazing lethargically on his throne, eating cream-cake, drinking whisky, smoking a cigar and wondering, medatively, why his followers had recently seemed less inspired... might be that animals don't fully appreciate some human qualities... he considered.
archergirl
maybe it gives us the urge to lift our legs on fire hydrants...
poetjude
so far today I have eaten
One burger
One cheese sarnie
One turkey sarnie
half a chicken sarnie
2 pancakes with banana and lemon and stuff
1 Krispy Kremem Donut
Diet coke (like that will help)
and I've only just started ...oink
archergirl
I do exactly the same thing sometimes, especially when I feel life is spinning out of control. Peanut butter sandwiches are my favourite psychological hole-stuffer; maybe I hope they'll clog it up! Forget the diet coke, man. If you're going to pig out, go for full sugar.
mykle
I hear it only has that effect on Americans, Ag.
Maybe you aren't smoking enough, j :O)
poetjude
There is no motivation for this reckless act of gluttony apart from that lent starts tomorrow.
archergirl
Ah, the old feast or famine thing.
Krispy Kremes, now... a pothead friend of mine used to say (about joints) the same thing I say about doughnuts:
One's too many, and a thousand's never enough...
archergirl
And, being that I'm not a Catholic and don't have to give anything up, I have to say I feel no compunction whatsoever about polishing off an entire bag of Waitrose 'fruit and nut selection', which I'm doing with alacrity.
I'd like to add, I feel no urge to work today, whatsoever. Not that it has anything to do with anything, but... can I give up work for Lent?
mykle
I think, like Fergal, you should climb a mountain before you eat your treat... you'll eat a lot less but you'll enjoy it more :O)
archergirl
Ah, I've climbed one metaphorical mountain after another, mykle, and I'm still climbing. I deserve every treat I get!
Nice to see you here, btw.
poetjude
just tucking into second doughnut.
Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday is always agonising as the first day of lent ... after a while the stomach shrinks and you get used to it.
mykle
I think that so long as you've earned your treat you deserve it.
Problem is that so many people nowadays use treats as comfort food and then feel more uncomfortable because they put on weight. I was going to do a doughnut impression as I'm low fat and would be a healthier choice ;O)
archergirl
Doughnuts ARE a little piece of God. Why don't they offer doughnuts instead of Communion wafers? Hell, even I'd convert then! :-)
poetjude
AAAArrrrrrggghhh - I'm starving and it's only 9:07 AM
poetjude
9:12 ...I don't know if I can hold out much longer.
poetjude
9.23 ....starting to feel faint
poetjude
Just read this up and its a bit lame....have had ryvita for brekkie but all in all its actually nowhere near as hardcore as Ramadan or Vaisnaivite fast days where I have to eat nought until sundown
Fasting means partaking of only one full meal. Some food (not equaling another full meal) is permitted at breakfast and around midday or in the evening—depending on when a person chooses to eat the main or full meal.
Abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, milk products or condiments made of animal fat.
Pah...lightweight!
ely_whitley
that kind of fasting has a different spelling, you change the 'f' for an 'e' and remove the 's'.
justyn_thyme
Back in the 80s there was a rather elderly Jewish lady working for me as an accountant in the company. She took her floating religious holiday on Yom Kipor (sp?), which is also a fasting day. Next day at work she wanted me to let her count it as a sick day instead of the floating day because she'd eaten so much the night before the fasting day that she was sick all day long on Yom Kipor. I told her that I admired her chutzpah in making such a blatantly self-serving request, but nevertheless, I declined. She appeared shocked. I guess no one had ever told her 'no' before.