When I was a kid I thought that giving something up for lent and making a New Year’s resolution were the same thing. I couldn’t conceive that one might better one’s self by doing anything other than giving up some tangible bad quality or vice.
I can’t think of any time that I ever did give something up or make a resolution. (Perhaps I resolved to give up something for lent one year, then gave up making resolutions.) Instead I think I committed myself to a general life of penance toward nothing in particular, in response to nothing I could believe.
This brings us to my Fat Tuesday resolution (and bimonthly blog manifesto/name change) – I’ll stop being a martyr to nothing.