Causation or Correlation?

Ash Wednesday just happens to coincide with my newfound determination to think and write and share, to stop worrying about the “audience” and anyone who might misinterpret, roll their eyes, insult, make fun of, think less of, or condemn me. Don’t read too much into my posts of a theological bent, and please don’t assume that I’m putting myself forward as anyone who has cornered the market on this faith stuff. Nothing could be further from the truth—especially now, when I am very much feeling my way back to some sort of equilibrium.

I came across this yesterday, and it sticks with me:

In the last analysis the ascetic never gives up the things of this world in themselves; he only gives up ways of possessing them which carry within themselves the seeds of their own decay.

—Father Louis Bouyer († 2004)

I’ll be honest. I don’t want to see the ashes on your foreheads. I don’t care about the sacrifices you’ve decided to make. If you think that Sundays in Lent don’t count, have at it. Few pits of mimetic desire are as deep as anything associated with a “Catholic community.” You go about your business and I’ll go about mine. Let me just say that, instead of worrying about what I sacrifice, I’ll be working to figure out what I’ve much too desperately spent my life trying to possess and why.