I gave up on-line dating for Lent. That’s right I’m Catholic. *dramatic pause* Okay, okay it might not always seem like it but I am. Born and raised with the whole ball of wax. We went to church for most of my childhood. My Mom taught me about faith and love and appreciation for those who came before us. My religion taught me guilt and fear and respect for the figures of power in my family. I am for all intents and purposes a true American born mix-breed Catholic, I question authority and take my birth control for the betterment of my world and not because I fear G*d will punish me someday. That’s right I am a fair-weather kneeler. (go ahead, giggle it’s okay we kneel to pray)
What is Lent? According to Wikipedia
Lent in the Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Okay, so Lent what the heck does it matter if for 40 days I give up on-line dating? Does it matter? Yes, it very much does to me. I may not go to church on the regular, nor have I gotten my poor child baptized yet and that is a whole other ball of drama-drama to save for another blog post. Lent is a time I use to challenge myself and to see if I can actually follow through. It is a time of self-discipline and denial of something that I know I don’t really need in my life. Back in the college years it was stuff like smoking, drinking and sex with my best friends roommate. And it really helped me to see what I needed in terms of faith and practice. While I may not be doing the Catholic Do, I know that whoever is up there judging us when judgement day comes isn’t going to fret over my few little sins and wouldn’t have invented Confession if he was gonna sweat the small stuff like single Mom’s who had a baby with some guy who she thought she was in loves with since she was 11-years old. Just sayin’.
On-line dating is an evil in my life I can totally do without. Logging in to these sites can either cause pain to my head or induce some kind of illness in my tummy from the amount of disgusting and lewd man that occupy that space. On-line dating has been one of those things that sounds like a good idea at the time and then your sitting looking at your computer screen and asking ‘what did I do to deserve this?’ out loud so your office mate can hear and of course she giggles cause she knows. Ugh. Much like smoking, it is a time filler and feels great for those few moments and then you’re not sure how you got back into a two-pack-a-day habit and are out $40 bucks in a week and…oops, sorry I digress. In all seriousness, giving up on-line dating made sense for me at this point. I’ve not me many quality people and with the last interaction I shared in this last post.
And so here I am one week into Lent and not really missing logging in. I’m finding myself over the withdrawals process and not sure I will jump back into it after Lent is over. And while you all might be a little SadPanda at the thought of my being alone forever and ever, take solace that I do have a future meeting planned with someone I did happen to connect with thanks to a site that I kinda already knew about but don’t know. Umm, yeah so there’s that and other stuff too. Not like I don’t get asked on dates people! Jeez man.
Are you giving shit up for Lent? Is there something you would give up for forty days even not being a person of religious affiliation?
***Video courtesy of the CatholicWeirdAl