Renunciation

One of the privileges of having a grant has been that I have been able to afford to have internet in my apartment. I’ve enjoyed reading world news, Georgian news, being able to search easily for information, and most particularly to receive and send emails.

Great Lent is here, and though my education is still somewhat poor and must be improved on this subject, I understand it to be a time of renunciation. Through a period of denying ourselves certain ‘pleasures,’ we remind ourselves of the great sacrifice that Christ gave to humanity during this time of year, many centuries ago. It is His renunciation, His great suffering and sacrifice that we remember in order to remind ourselves to be better human beings, to ‘live in Christ’ which I take to mean to attempt to follow the qualities of virtue which he taught: compassion, charity, humility, honesty...

Though ‘fasting,’ as the food renunciation is called, is not followed by everyone here, it is definitly part of the culture. Many people threw ‘pre-Fasting’ supras in order to finish off their stocks of cheese, meat, fish, and other dairies. Restaurants will now have special fasting-menus, and every grocery-store clerk is fluent on the fasting-status of store items.

Going vegan won’t be such a stretch for me. It’s more the motivational idea that is worrisome. Why do it? It seems like some kind of tradition from the middle east two thousand years ago that wasn’t even Christian to begin with but came out of the strict eating tradition of the Jewish faith. Please correct me if I’m wrong in this.

So I’m thinking about the ideas of renunciation: I’ve never really given up anything during Lent before, or made New Year’s resolutions, or any of these types of things before.

The long and the short of my thinking is that my internet access is what I covet most, and therefore, it must go. Well, a cutback. If we’re to have renunciation, it has to be something important to ourselves right? Something that really actually reminds us daily that we’re giving up something in memory of Christ’s sacrifice. Funny that the internet is going to be that for me.

Of course, I’m going to keep the vegan fast, but honestly it will be more of an exploration of other available foods, and a daily annoyance in the supermarket, rather than a renunciation-act for me. But I have only continued my email vice from college days, so a self-imposed curfew will be good for me, and a challenge too.