I originally posted this on Friday at Street Prophets. Initially I didn’t feel the need to crosspost it, but given the recent spate of accusations of “cultishness” against the supporters of Obama, I’ve come to change my mind
So here it is, the first Friday in Lent. Even if I weren’t tuned into the liturgical year, it would be hard not to notice the arrival of the season. Because everywhere I look, I see fast food places advertising their “limited time only” fish sandwiches. Incidentally, when I was growing up Catholic, I absolutely detested fish, so my most frequent, informal prayer on Fridays during Lent was, “Please let it be cheese pizza tonight!”
By the time I was in high school and was preparing my own breakfast, I would sometimes get halfway into preparing a ham and egg sandwich before realizing that it was Friday. With a quick glance upward, I would silently, rhetorically ask, “Wasting food would be worse than eating meat on Friday, right?” And then I would finish cooking and eating my breakfast.
At some point during elementary school, my religion teacher introduced the notion of doing something special during this season rather than “giving something up”. Mind you, that didn’t let me off the hook as far as meat on Fridays, but the idea of finding something positive to do really captured my imagination.
Many years later, after having children of my own, I would leave the Catholic church, spend some years “wandering in the desert”–or “church hopping”, if you want to be prosaic about it, before finally settling in the Episcopal church. But I’ve continued to think of Lent as a time to find something to say “yes” to.
In fact, it was four years ago on Ash Wednesday that I was officially received into the Episcopal church. I didn’t have to make things official in that way, as I was attending a progressive Episcopal church held the philosophy, “if you consider this your home church, then you’re a member”. But four years ago, you’ll recall, we were wrapping up another primary season. It was the first election that I’d really paid attention and actually gotten involved, and I’d been pretty disillusioned by the whole thing. When the media and the Democratic party leaders pushed the narrative that the nominee had been decided, way before I had a chance to vote, I was seriously ticked off. I wanted to find some meaningful way to tell the party where they could stick it, but it turned out that in Ohio, you declare your party by voting in a primary. So I didn’t have the option of leaving the Democratic party in some symbolic gesture.
What’s more, I was frustrated that, months away from the general election, I was stuck with a candidate I didn’t like, but had to vote for to get Bush out of office. And I would be going to the polls to say “no” to Bush, rather than “yes” to someone I genuinely believed in. Anyway, long story short, this was also the time when the Episcopal church was taking some heat for upholding the election of Bishop Gene Robinson, and some people were leaving the church. I thought, fine, you may be losing members, but you’ll gain at least one, because I believe in rewarding good behavior. And I really needed something to say “yes” to just then.
So, anyway, now that it’s that time of year again, I’m thinking about what I can do that’s positive…what I can say “yes” to. And, maybe this seems a bit remedial, but given that I’ve had such a long, relatively dry spell, I think that saying “yes” to blogging more is a step in the right direction.
Postscript…I had really resigned myself to this primary just being about saying “No!” to Hillary. (And it is a loud, powerful, resounding “No!”) I only slowly, gingerly began to move toward sayind “Yes” to Barack Obama as a candidate. It can’t be a “jumping in with both feet” kind of yes–I’m still too cautious for that. But even a little bit of optimism feels better than what I had before, which was just a glimmer of hope that Hillary’s “inevitability” was not a foregone conclusion. And I’m not a strong enough person that it’s easy for me to protect and nurture that small seedling of hope and optimism in settings that are rife with cynicism and punchbowl-p!ssing. ‘Cause, dang it, it feels good to hope, and to say yes–even a little bit–and I’m not about to let go of that just now.
