THE MEANDERWALKER

Like I’ve written about probably a billion times, I grew up Catholic. So of course I’m familiar with the tradition of sacrificing things for Lent. When I was in middle school and actually declared a yearly sacrifice (hey, everyone was doing it, okay), I would give up something that really meant a lot to me… usually ice cream.

I mean, I get it and all. The idea is that if you sacrifice something, then you’ll get something else out of it… presumably some sort of spiritual enlightenment or cleansing. And, I guess I did get something out of it… that is, once I grew self-aware enough to notice that every year when I gave up ice cream for forty days I made a much better flyer during cheerleading week in gym class (how demeaning is that, right? — the boys learned wrestling while we had to come up with cheerleading routines for an hour). I was smart enough to assume that it was because of the lack of excess mass on my 6th-grade body, on account of the lack of daily ice cream, making it easier for other 11 year old girls to pick me up. And thus began my adolescent-girl weight obsession!

But man, things have really changed since I was a 7th grader hanging out in AOL chatrooms with my friends while the hours racked up on my family’s monthly America Online bill and eating ice cream everyday after a long, hard day of demoralizing gym classes. It makes me wonder… if I were in middle school right now, in this day and age, would I give up social networking for Lent instead of ice cream?

I’ll admit, it would be really difficult for me to give up the internet for any amount of time, and I’m defintely capable of wasting hours upon hours on MySpace or Facebook, but c’mon…

Kelly Graham, who was raised Catholic, is studying theology at the University of Nottingham in England. She’s far from her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and said the distance has made the sacrifice more difficult.

“If I’m missing someone, there’s no real way to let them know,” she said.

Here’s a tip.. pick up the gee-dee phone or send them an email! As if writing a note on someone’s “wall” is the single most sincere way to tell your loved ones that you miss them.

“It’s a form of spiritual awareness that allows you to reconnect with God,” said Jocelyn Chiu, an Emory University sophomore and active member of her Presbyterian church. “By giving up something that used up so much of my time, I realized that I had been leaving my spiritual life behind.”

So, basically, she was busy tagging soo many photos of herself and keeping her friends updated on her current status, that she forgot to believe in god in the meantime! Facebooook, how could you!?

But while Kelly Graham is afraid she won’t be able to show her BFF back in the states how much she means to her by paying a dollar (USD) to give her “Today’s New Gift” (Limited Edition: only 100,000 available)…

[She] said giving up Facebook has helped her distinguish between her real friends and those of “convenience.” Montgomery says she now plays tennis and focuses on schoolwork more often, and Chiu has been studying, reading the Bible and spending time with friends.

Seriously though, how comparable is giving up MySpace for a little over a month versus living outside and not eating for 40 days while the Devil dances around you? Because, you know what, thats what Jesus did.

Listen to the Reverend-with-a-MySpace:

“People are realizing that reality involves people, not pixels.”