Lent: Taking up blogging and giving up trash…

09Mar11

Lots of bloggers give up blogging for Lent. Seeing how I have a churned out a mere handful of posts over the span of the past few years, I hope to take up blogging as a discipline of sorts. It will be a mish-mash of reflections, and I think I’ll be mining popular culture (and not-so-popular culture) for songs with Lenten themes that lead us into deeper reflection.

This year for Lent, I’m giving up beer, cigarettes (I roll my own on occasion), and cursing (mostly done to myself, in the car, and around Helen, but it’s gotten a bit out of control). Based on what I’m giving up for Lent, I am more Catholic than I’ve ever been.  Oh, and I’m also giving up trash. Yes—trash. I will attempt to follow the Three R’s even more–Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I can’t claim originality for this ‘Trash for Lent’ idea though. I think I first heard about it a few years ago on a Homebrewed Christianity podcast via Tripp Fuller. The idea has stuck with me, and the timing is right.

So here’s how I’m going to attempt to fast from trash. Simply put, I am not allowed to throw anything away. What I cannot recycle, compost, or reuse, I will have to carry with me in a handy bag that I picked up today at a thrift store. (This is excepting, of course, toilet paper—although I suppose I could compost that too. Hmm…). And that bag will go with me everywhere I go. It’s a sweet vintage 80′s duffel bag, so at least I’ll be carrying my trash in style.

Trash for Lent works well for me because I already reuse shopping bags, I rarely eat out, and I’m an aggressive recycler (read: I recycle #6 plastics and I’m not scared of dumpster diving). And as a (non-strict) vegetarian, I will continue to discard all my food scraps into the compost bin at the church building next to Gordon’s Garden. Yeah, it probably wouldn’t work so well if I had to carry around meat scraps and bones in my trash bag. Every dog in the neighborhood…

I’m going to stock up on handkerchiefs because I go through too many kleenexes (even though I sometimes compost those–but re-using cloth is better than consuming paper goods). And I’m going to become even more meticulous about recycling. Right now on average, Helen and I throw out a very light bag of trash once a week. With Trash for Lent, I’m going to attempt to trim that down significantly.

So yeah, I will be accruing trash starting tomorrow, Thursday. I think the only trash I had from today were a few paper towels and two Amy’s Organic Spinach Tofu packages when I broke fast this evening, so I’m off to a good start. Now, you may be thinking that I’m going to have to carry the same trash with me for 40+ days, but since Sundays are feast days, I will relieve myself of the contents of my trashed-out duffel bag, and begin again.

Why give up trash? I think my American way of life has lost touch with the amount of trash I/we create. It’s utterly mindless and the wheels have come off. Our Depression-Era grandparents and great-grandparents are likely appalled at what we carelessly use once and then throw away without second thought. Trash for Lent is a push-back against the culture of expendability. We have been slowly trained to use it once and throw it away, so that the demand for outsourced production continues to consume the limited resources of our already stressed planet as we turn forests into landfills. In giving up trash for Lent, I really hope to lessen my role in the crucifixion of Creation.

I’ll need encouragement along the way, and if you see me ducking off to secretly throw something in the garbage, call a brother out.

pax
t

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