The Jihad of Lent

I've forgotten how to fast, or at least that's how it feels in the jihad - holy struggle - that is my Lent.
My previous practices of self-denial have become so habitual that  they no longer seem worthy.
My new attempts are fledgling, flailing struggling, halting.

Have a holy lent.

Prayer. Check. More prayer. For a while.
Fasting. Trying. Successful. For now.
Introspection. Moments of clarity. In between and in-and-around the business of life.
Study. Yes. More. New. Different. Will it last?

Have a holy lent.

The big announcement - even if only to myself - this year I will do this, every day, every week, every month, for the whole season seems destined to failure.
Can one fail at Lent? Can one be too legalistic? Can one make an idol out of Lent?
Or are those excuses of a flesh that does not want to be denied.

Have a holy lent.

Being Human

What is a human being? What does it mean to be human?
All of creation is crafted by God. Everything that breathes, כל הנשמה, is breathed by God.
How then are we different, if we are? Unique, if indeed we are?
Imago Dei is both how we are what we are and what we are.
We are God's image in our capacities: to love and to choose.
Part of being human is the capacity to transgress. We can choose to do that which is injurious and evil.
And, part of being human is the capacity and ability to transcend our own humanity.
We can choose.
We can change.
We can transgress.
We can transcend.
And we bear the mark of our maker along with all that has been made.

Entitled Embodiment

A study in carnality: Americans take up a lot of space; and some more than others. I remember news stories discussing how the increased size of American bodies cut the margins of freight and weight on airplanes. I remember reading that the amount of fat on the American buttock was interfering with the delivery of intramuscular injections.

What fascinates me now is the entitlement that comes along with the super-sized bodies. This is not true for all plus-size, queen-size or diva-sized people. I’m just thinking and writing about a few – more than a few – folk I have encountered over the years.

From airplane seats to theme-park rides, I watch people unapologetically taking up some or all of the adjacent seat – even if it is occupied. I confess I have had to endure the horror of a stranger’s thighs and belly rolls pressing against me from the side.

Most recently I have watched people demand that the world accommodate them: redesign seating in theaters, on planes, household furniture; slow to their pace; reshape the very terrain if it is too much for their overburdened knees. And all at someone else’s expense, it ought to be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The problem of their mobility or fit are someone else's. Everyone else's. And god help you if you point out that breathing, joint pain and mobility problems in some cases just might be weight-related.

Human bodies can be beautiful at any size. Fat is beautiful even when it is unhealthy. And inflated egos can inhabit any size body. And sometimes there is a direct, proportional relationship between the size of the ego and the size of the carcass.
Since I wrote this, actor/director/comedian Kevin Smith was just booted off a  Southwest Airlines for violating their "customer of size" policy. He says it was because he was too fat. However, he admits that he bought two seats per their policy and then shifted to an earlier flight on which there was only one seat available. That's when the captain removed him. I wonder was there another passenger whose seat he was sharing without consent?