Second week of fasting

For our second week of fasting during Lent Chad and I decided to give up watching TV.  I thought that TV would be the hardest, but most needed fast we would do.  We have Tivo so we did set up to record the shows that we watch regularly.  It ended up not being nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I found that what I missed more was not a specific show, but the "relaxing" time of just zoning out watching TV.  It was especially hard because during this week of no TV was when the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system announced drastic cutbacks of 148 staff layoffs and 12 libraries closing.  On Wednesday March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, we found out from a friend that in the past St. Patrick's Day was used as a break from Lent, which is why it became known as a drinking holiday.  So, since that was the day I found out about the drastic cuts and was in fear of my job, we decided to take the St. Patrick's Day Lent break and watch TV - and it did help me not worry excessively about my job and the library system.

Our pastor Jim described in one of the "Fast Forward" Lent services we should think about fasting from something that was "numbing" and I definitely find TV to be numbing in a way.  I don't always watch it to be numbed or forget about life, but I think I was guilty of just turning it on to have background noise or out of habit.  Chad and I have decided to try to watch less TV overall after doing this fast.  We have also decided to not eat dinner in the living room while watching TV, which was another bad habit we had.  But, overall it was not as hard as I thought it would be and we are going to try to use this past week as motivation to try to watch less TV in the future.

Our third and final week of fasting for Lent will be to fast from using Facebook.  While that might not seem like a hard fast I have found that I spend a LOT of time on Facebook - time that could probably be better spent.  So, the TV is back and Facebook is out (for the week).

First 7 days of fasting

Our church is doing a series right now on the Lent season that comes before Easter.  Some people fast from something for 40 days before Easter, but our pastor challenged us to fast from something for 21 days.  It could be anything we wanted it to be and for any length of time.  Chad and I decided to fast from something different each week of the 21 days and he was also going to fast from politics for the whole time (YES!). 

The first week we decided to fast from eating meat.  I have always wanted to try to eat less meat and then use our grocery money to buy local meat that wasn't raised in a factory farm, but hadn't really made that happen yet.  I didn't think Chad would want to do the meat fast, but he was on board so that's what we did for the past week.  And honestly it was MUCH easier than I thought it would be.  The only real issue came when we did eat out because we had to think about where we could both get something meat-free that we both liked - we ended up eating at Panera 3 times!  I think we both enjoyed all the meals we made at home too.  Because of this we are now going to try to eat less meat overall and hopefully I can eventually work in my goal of buying more local meat too. 

So, first week down and now onto the second fast - TV.  I am ashamed to admit that I think this will be the hardest one for me, but on the plus side if the weather is nice hopefully we'll get outside and walk more in the evenings and I think we'll get a LOT of reading done too.

Just Because...

This week Chad surprised me with roses - no special occasion, just because he wanted to surprise me.  I came home from work and he had not only bought me roses, but he was also cooking dinner! 
Here are some pictures of the beautiful roses:

Gloria Steinem

On March 1, 2010 I was lucky enough to get to see Gloria Steinem speak at UNC Charlotte for free and with some other library friends - Melanie and Amrita.  I know that she is a huge feminist icon and I was super excited to get to see her and apparently so were a lot of other people - almost 1,000 people showed up and unfortunately that meant we ended up in the overflow section - not in the actual room with her.  Also, she had laryngitis so one of UNCC's women's studies professors read her speech for her, but she did answer questions from the audience herself so we did get to hear her speak/whisper.  But, I did really enjoy her speech and it is amazing to see someone who has done so much for the women's movement in person.  She has helped make huge strides for women all over the world with her work.  As most people who know me know I am a feminist, but I am also a Christian and I tell people that I filter things first through the Christian lens and then through the feminist one.  I believe that Jesus was the first feminist - He was completely radical for that time with His treatment of women as equals.  So, I was not thrilled when during the Q&A time Ms. Steinem responded to a question saying "Monotheism was created so men could be God", which I agree and disagree with.  I do think religion has been and is used to justify all kinds of evil things - slavery, keeping women in a lower status, war, etc.  But, I believe God is vastly different than how humans play out religion - God created men and women in His image and we are equal in His sight.  God is the perfect, loving being who wants nothing but the best for us.  So, while I agree for the most part with the feminist ideology I do NOT agree with what Ms. Steinem had to say about that topic when I saw her speak.  You can be a feminist and a Christian and I think Jesus was the perfect example of that! 

Now, here are a few pictures I took of the screen that night:

          The professor reading Ms. Steinem's speech.

          Ms. Steinem answering quesitons.