Lenten Activity Decision Time

I found this photo taken of my two brothers and me. The one on the left is my oldest brother. He looks like that even though he is now 70 years old. I saw him once eat five Big Mac's in a single sitting along with fries and something to drink. He has a metabolism that allows him to consume huge quantities of food and never gain weight.

The brother in the middle is also my older brother. When he was in high school, my parents actually took him to the doctor to see if there was something that could be done to get some weight on him. Nowadays, he will drink down twelve gallons of beer and imagine that he's already eaten. If you try to serve him a cooked meal, when you remove the cloche to reveal the goodies, he will jump back from the table, then with a long stick in one hand and a beer in the other, slowly poke at the food.

Personally, I have followed what might be called a culinary "middle way," a path somewhat like the one that Buddha described as a moderation between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification.

I was thinking about these things in part because we are approaching Ash Wednesday and Lent, and I was trying to think about what I might do to focus myself on the task at hand -- what activity can I incorporate into my daily routine that will prompt me to consider the state of my relationship with God?

To be honest, I am fairly lousy with Lenten activities, just like I'm bad at New Year's resolutions. I don't think I'm going to give anything up. I'm at a time and place in life where "giving up" is an all too common activity, and not always a good idea. Prayer is a great activity, and there's always room for improvement, but prayer is something I've been able to spend a lot of time revising, and that's an ongoing project, not something "new" for Lent.

I think I need some kind of physical activity, something that I can do at the same time every day, something that will make me spend a half an hour or so thinking about how the circumstances of my chosen middle way lifestyle have perhaps left me a little too comfortable, a little too complacent, perhaps even soft around the middle. I might even try to incorporate the Stations of the Cross into that activity. I've been to a number of places that have an outdoor Stations trail, and maybe I can lay out a route around town that would allow me to walk and pray the Stations at the same time.

Whatever it's going to be, I need to decide by tomorrow, eh? Maybe I'll just give up procrastinating. I'll at least think about it.