Sometimes I do"giving-up-for-Lent", some years I don't.
I vividly remember the time, probably nearly 20 years ago, when I successfully, or rather, nearly successfully, gave up biscuits for Lent. Everytime I saw a bicuit, or even a biscuit tin, I would mutter "Gethsemene" and run away mentally, if not physically. It was a tough time. I did eat biscuits twice. Once by accident, sitting at the tea table after a children's tea, chatting with a friend, I discovered that my mouth was full of biscuit and I hadn't even noticed what I was doing. It seemed uncouth to spit it out, so I finished it. (It was custard cream - not even worth eating). The other time was when my daughter brought a biscuit she had made at shool home and saved for me - I honestly and sincerely believe that it would have been so wrong to refuse to eat it when she had carefully made it and brought it home. Sometimes the breaking of the fast is more important that the keeping of it.
I can't remember much of the Lents since that one.
This year might be more memorable; As well as giving up freecell (see an earlier post), I am also giving up speeding - don't laugh - in the hope that after 47 days of this I will be a reformed driver. I don't speed very much or very often, but there are a couple of very, very annoying restrictions along my weekly routes. So far I have deliberately broken this one once - I got myself boxed in on a dual carriageway and the only way out was to break the 50 mph limit. I should have thought ahead and avoided the situation.
My colleagues think that giving up speeding is hilarious. They should try it; you need a lot of mental toughness to stick to 40 mph all the way up the road from Horsham to Rusper. I am so thankful for the driver behind me, who also seemed to be determined to observe the speed limit and left a decent distance between his bonnet and my boot. He was tail-gated all the way up the hill for his pains. Bless you, who ever you are.
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