An Ethical Lent

Well, as a rather new practitioner of Lent (started in 2009,  never really heard of it before then), I have had decent and so/so Lenten experiences thus far. All my life I was in churches that ignored Lent and all of the Holy Week practices except for Easter Sunday. When I decided to become a part time Episcopal in 2009, I discovered this really groovy mainline Protestant practice. I fell in love with the concept of it. Forty days of reflection and sacrifice, fasting, etc... who doesn't need that?! Now I found out quickly that some folks who grew up with Lent as a yearly tradition are rather blase about the whole thing, but in my first year I was very zealous and found it was a meaningful time. The following few years were not so hot, I was in grief and mourning a loss and struggling just to exist, Lent was taken very lightly if at all. Actually I don't even remember last year's Lent, only that I gave up after a few days of whatever I was going to do without and just wrote it off completely.

This year however, Lent has found me with my head (and heart) back in the game. As a tender hearted person towards animals since early childhood, eating beef and pork has always been an ethical issue that troubled me. I desire to be a vegetarian and I've had a few good go's at it, but didn't stick, I've quit fooling myself that I'll ever easily give up eating meat completely, but giving up eating cows and pigs has always been high on my agenda. The mistreatment of cows and pigs (and of course other factory farmed animals too) came to my attention sometime in my early thirties. I was disgusted and outraged, even sickened, but could not stop eating beef or pork even though it bothered me morally a lot of the time. Like Albert Einstein, "I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience."

Well, I decided to make giving up pork and beef a part of my Lent this year. Surprise, surprise, I've done it! Now don't shake your head and say, "So what, is that supposed to impress me?" Let me just clarify, I am a beef and pork eating machine, when I say I love the stuff, I mean I really love the stuff. Well, the good news is that it's been easy, real easy, like Divine intervention easy. I plan to keep going with it when Lent ends. I feel like a better person. I'll work on quitting other meats soon too perhaps, but I'm not quite ready just yet. One step at a time on this journey, this chicken will cross that road when she comes to it.