Right, this’ll be my last entry for a while! As you know, Lent starts on Wednesday, and this year I’ve decided to give up the World Wide Web, which I reckon extends to me writing Letters from Leeds. I’ve tried out various things over the years – chocolate, tea and coffee; you know the score – and I always think it good to have a bit of variety. So no popping onto Amazon or eBay, or reading BBC News, or my daily Dilbert fix. No discussion forums, or competition sites. No online games…
Actually one necessary proviso is that of course sometimes I have to use the web for work – programming reference, conference information.. and indeed part of my job involves web services. Not to mention my course website that I have to maintain. However, it’s the emphasis that’s important – no web for entertainment or personal interest.
There are also two schools of thought over Lent. The observant will notice that Lent is inspired by Jesus’s 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. However, the time between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday is 6 and a bit weeks, i.e. 42 days plus. The answer is that technically Sunday’s aren’t a part of Lent, so you can eat your chocolate or whatever on Sunday, but not during the week (Sunday is a day of celebration, you see – not appropriate to fast). My brother-in-law holds to this school of thought, and will have sugar in his coffee until 6pm on a Sunday (he also follows the Old Testament thinking about when any given day starts/ends). The catch is that in this model, every Friday for the rest of the year is a day of fasting! I can’t help thinking this is cheating though, and giving something up for Lent means the whole hog!
See you after Easter…