Recovering Catholic, The Lenten Triggers

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of Lent and forty days of fasting, reflection, and giving up sweets, or watching T.V., or cussing, or fighting with your brothers. Yes, Lent is the time Catholics decide to refrain from partaking in certain vices to get closer to God, and to show some kinship with Jesus who wandered in a desert for the same amount of time.

And though I am no longer Catholic, for many reasons from the pedophilia and perverse views of sex and love to the hypocrisy of the medieval and sexist infrastructure, for some reason this time of year makes me miss it a little.

Lent, unlike other Catholic holidays, illustrates the religions strongest sense of ritual and reflection. Most of the time Catholics can do whatever they want, when ever they want and get away with as long as they confess. But during Lent, those crazy Catholics show a severity that uncommon the rest of the year.

Examples:

Ash Wednesday: an outward symbols of faith that leaves them vulnerable to questions and even ridicule, as seen this year with the media and Biden.

No meat Fridays: This version of fasting results in specific Lenten menus, at least within my Mexican family, like Lentil soup, chile rellenos, shrimp cakes, and fruit water. This is the only time of year that a specific menu is called for.

Stations of the Cross: reenactments of Jesus' final journey, lots of kneeling and reciting, and just general serious praying.

Palm Sunday: includes religious paraphernalia and more reenactments.

Easter Vigil: 2 hour long mass, maybe longer, starting with people standing outside a church in the dark with candles, and includes baptisms, confirmations, and First Holy Communions. If you go to this mass, you are a serious Catholic.

I gave up Catholicism many many years ago. I'm probably close to 10 years sober, but this time of year with all its ritual and restraint really does something to my old Catholic guilt and suddenly I want to put down my big juicy burger and make a tuna sandwich. Just this once. Just for old times sake.

igag

Am I the only one who thinks the ipad looks like the oversized office supplies gag gift you might find at the dollar store? F-A-I-L!

The Checklist

Yesterday, on The Daily Show with John Stewart, his guest was Atul Gawande, surgeon and author of The Checklist Manifesto. This book details how a checklist is useful for many of us, specifically in hospitals. In the interview Gawande explains that though he has seen positive results from asking surgeons to perform a simple checklist before surgeries it is not mandatory, and many don't wish to do one. It may be ego, but there is no shame in the checklist game.

I am no surgeon, but I know I couldn't live my life with out the use of checklists. For five years I was the director of a Theatre program at a high school in Arcadia, and in that time I relied on lists to help me keep track of everything from directing, producing, designing the set, keeping track of the props and costumes, contacting parents, and so forth. Within theatre the checklist is part of the norm. There are lists that are checked before any performance that involves cast members, light cues, props, costumes, and so more. How else can you be sure a performance will run smoothly, without first checking that all the necessary elements are in place? It works wonders for a production, and I don't see how if theatre people can do for a performance, why doctors wouldn't do the same for saving a life. Right? I mean it's like, duh!

Though I learned the importance of the list from my theatre experience and discovered its invaluableness from my time as a solo lonely high school Theatre Arts department director, it now has spread over the rest of my life. I rarely do any major or minor daily production--family trips, house chores, writing projects, fellowship applications--without the all knowing list.

Why? If I don't have a check list everything piles up and the amount of work I have to accomplish feels insurmountable. I begin to worry that I will never get it done, and I quickly run to throw my head under the blankets and sleep it all away. BUT with a check list everything changes. Your work is in a manageable order and you can note your progress. Nothing feels as good as when you've checked something off the list. And there is never any last minute panic about forgetting something because your list tells you, you haven't.

The check-list: not just for theatre geeks and surgeons anymore.