Brigid Slipka

So!  40 Days of Giving!  What kind of gimmick is that?

Let’s start with the 40 days bit.  If it sounds vaguely Biblical, you win!  Jesus bummed around the desert for 40 days, purifying himself spiritually, before his crucifixion.  Catholic folks remember and reenact this purification by giving something up during the 40 days before Easter, a period they call Lent.

If this sounds less Biblical and more Josh Hartnett, that’s because he was in a movie about it.  In this movie, he gives up sex.  I’m giving up money.  Sex & Money: the driving forces of every dramatic story.*

I fully expect my movie contract any day now.

I secretly love Lent.  It’s spiritual detox: a chance to scour out whatever obsessive habit I’ve gotten into that year, be it too much drinking or too much solitaire.  Other bits of religious practice have fallen by the wayside, but this one I keep up.

So this year: 40 days of giving away Me Own Dollars.  Lent starts this Wednesday and it ends on Easter, April 2.

(By the way,  if you have any idea as to why I stick with the Lent thing instead of, say indulgences, please let me know.   A couple Freudian psychoanalysts want to do a dissertation in it.)

*Credit due, for this and many other things, to Harlene Marley.