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harmonyharmony
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« on: 22:36:00, 11-02-2008 » |
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Is anyone giving anything up for Lent?
The only thing I'm giving up is whisky. I don't want it in the house because I tend to drink it.
I'm taking a few things up though:
1. I said when I moved to Edinburgh that I wanted to do some work with the homeless, working in a soup kitchen or something. Still working on that but I've sent some emails expressing interest.
2. I'm sorting my recycling out - I've been stockpiling it since moving in (late October) and have finally got around to finding out where I have to take it. Now I have to do that but at least it's in bags by the door ready to go!
3. I've swapped all the lightbulbs in the flat for long-life ones. The bed-side lamp doesn't but I don't like it anyway so I'm probably going to replace the lamp rather than the bulb.
4. I've got to move some furniture up here from Durham. My desk and sofabed (among other things) would come in really handy here and I've been putting off the removals for long enough. I might just take the desk to bits and see if it will fit in my car rather than hiring a van...
5. I want to actually go to the Fair Trade shop in the church round the corner. I walk past it and think 'I should pop in' but I'm always on my way somewhere else. I'd like to find somewhere that does good reliable FT citrus fruits most of all.
6. I will finally look for a swimming pool / gym with which I'm happy and build it into my routine.
7. There are a few scores and recordings that I have to send to various people.
8. I want to read the whole of the book of Isaiah, and make a start on the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita.
So not too much to achieve and mainly achievable in baby steps...
Anyone else?
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #1 on: 22:44:57, 11-02-2008 » |
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Anyone else?
Erm, your to-do list sounds uncannily like mine, hh! (Except that I'm already pretty good at recycling and don't have any especial interest in free-trade shops; nor have I drunk whisky for about 6 years, in fact I very rarely have any alcohol in the house. Don't worry though, there are certainly other things I could add to my list to bring it back up to the length of yours ...) |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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MabelJane
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« Reply #2 on: 23:33:52, 11-02-2008 » |
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Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #3 on: 23:35:39, 11-02-2008 » |
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Oh MJ. We'd miss you. I find it hard to strike a happy medium between not coming near the place and being permanently logged on. Maybe I need to be strict with myself and ration my access. Anyone do this already? |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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time_is_now
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« Reply #4 on: 23:42:42, 11-02-2008 » |
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Anyone do this already?
No.  |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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Andy D
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« Reply #5 on: 23:43:28, 11-02-2008 » |
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Oh MJ. We'd miss you. I find it hard to strike a happy medium between not coming near the place and being permanently logged on. Maybe I need to be strict with myself and ration my access. Anyone do this already? Not me, I find it hard to turn off the PC late at night. And I always eat my breakfast in front of it which means I have an early look at r3ok.  |
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MabelJane
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« Reply #6 on: 23:47:19, 11-02-2008 » |
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 I'd miss you all too. I find it hard to strike a happy medium between not coming near the place and being permanently logged on.
Maybe I need to be strict with myself and ration my access.
Anyone do this already?
Never managed it. Which is why I shall have to give it up one day. But perhaps not just yet...
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Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #7 on: 00:16:12, 12-02-2008 » |
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Yeah, but you've got that bottle of vodka in the wardrobe, tinners  As I'm a veggie, and I don't smoke, I'm not sure what else I could really give up? I think I'll make a decent-sized donation to a worthwhile cause as my "bit", since I'm also, ehem, a fervent unbeliever. |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Kittybriton
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« Reply #8 on: 00:38:21, 12-02-2008 » |
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Newly-wed vicar story. Newly-wed wife takes her hubby's hand "time for bed my love" NWH: "I can't! It's lent." NWW:  "What? To whom, and for how long?" |
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Click me -> About meor me -> my handmade storeNo, I'm not a complete idiot. I'm only a halfwit. In fact I'm actually a catfish. |
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martle
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« Reply #9 on: 08:57:00, 12-02-2008 » |
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Hang on, we've only just had New Year! You mean that, barely six weeks later we've got to start giving up stuff again? I mean, other stuff? Or do I mean stuff which we failed to give up on the first attempt?  |
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Green. Always green.
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #10 on: 09:36:48, 12-02-2008 » |
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I've given up chocolate.
One of these Lents I will give up alcohol and excessive websurfing, but am ashamed to say I'm not ready for either of the above.
I'm also intending to donate to the Diocese of London's Lent Appeal whose target this year is the building of three schools in Angola and Mozambique... the total target is really ridiculously low, something like £25,000, so any sort of double-figure sum with Gift Aid added should succeed in making a fair dent in it!
Our vicar has often expressed the view that it's more productive to take up positive behaviours for Lent - extra charitable giving, or whatever - than to give up supposedly negative ones.
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Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
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A
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« Reply #11 on: 09:40:35, 12-02-2008 » |
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Hang on, we've only just had New Year! You mean that, barely six weeks later we've got to start giving up stuff again? I mean, other stuff? Or do I mean stuff which we failed to give up on the first attempt? At the risk of , yet again saying the wrong thing, ..only if you believe that Lent is important Mart ... I'll get me coat  A |
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Well, there you are.
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Ruth Elleson
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« Reply #12 on: 09:56:11, 12-02-2008 » |
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I certainly don't think you have to be a Christian to find Lent useful. I think the idea of a spiritual "declutter" applies to anybody who might want to subscribe to it (though you certainly don't have to do it at a fixed time of year if you don't want to).
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Logged
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Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #13 on: 12:24:05, 12-02-2008 » |
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Of course, another approach to the Penitential season is the advice of the Rabbi of a small Siberian village to one of his flock - "Bring a goat in the house!". "A goat? Why? It'll be terrible!" comes the reply. "Ah, but wait and see!" says the Rabbi.
A month later, the Rabbi comes by. "Well, how is it - with the goat?". "Rabbi, I have to confess - it was so awful with the goat, that even though we tried, finally my wife ordered me to take the goat out and tether it in the yard.. I'm only a man, Rabbi, I can't argue with my wife over such a matter."
"And?"
"Oh, Rabbi, it's WONDERFUL! We're SO happy without the goat, I can't tell you! It's like our honeymoon was, twenty years ago! Thank you so much, Rabbi!"
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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A
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« Reply #14 on: 12:28:11, 12-02-2008 » |
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I certainly don't think you have to be a Christian to find Lent useful. I think the idea of a spiritual "declutter" applies to anybody who might want to subscribe to it (though you certainly don't have to do it at a fixed time of year if you don't want to).
Absolutely Ruth, that is my point really!! A |
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Well, there you are.
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