Most of us are creatures so comforted by habit, it can take something on
the order of religion to invoke new, more conscious behaviors – however
glad we may be afterward that we went to the trouble.
- Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly
interested in liberation.
- E.F. Schumacher in Small is Beautiful

………..

Dear fellow wanderers,

Welcome to the second week of Lent. Here in Winnipeg, the thermometer’s begun to peak above freezing, turning long-frozen snowbanks into giant puddles. These days have served as a gentle – albeit messy, if one’s walking or biking – reminder that our landscape is undergoing a gradual transformation into a warmer, greener season. It’s surely a fitting metaphor for integrating Lenten rituals into our daily routines.

Much ink has been spent on providing negative reasons for why we need to swiftly gut our consumerist kick. Our Lent message from last week, for example, pointed out the looming ecological and economic issues ahead. The likes of Adbusters, Canadian Dimension and the Dark Mountain Project haven’t let us forget the terrifying state of the world, either. But challenging consumerism isn’t just about preventing the world’s collapse.

A simple, less-consumerist life is also about re-discovering our humanity (a cliché, but hopefully it’s a worthwhile one). A few centuries of planned obsolescence combined with cultural conditioning and mandated efficiency have deadened the human spirit. We’ve been shielded from the extraordinary sensory experience found in one’s local community and biosphere. Religious practice is seldom related to soil.

Spiritual coup
So consider this a plea for a spiritual coup, to reclaim a right to live a meaningful existence. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus – two dudes from the U.S. who started a blog appropriately titled The Minimalists – suggest that “by clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.” We tend to agree.

E.F. Schumacher probably would have, too. In his 1973 Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered, the British writer (and former National Coal Board advisor) argued for a worldview that acknowledges the finite resources of the earth and degrading nature of capitalist production. He drew upon both the Buddhist principles of work and the Christian Gospels’ Sermon on the Mount for inspiration.

After positing that “the present consumer society is like a drug addict,” Schumacher suggests “. . . it takes a good deal of courage to say ‘no’ to the fashions and fascinations of the age and to question the presuppositions of a civilisation which appears destined to conquer the whole world; the requisite strength can be derived only from deep convictions.”

Communal rehab
It’s our opinion that Lent might serve as an ideal time to foster such convictions: to communally enter rehab (to carry on with Schumacher’s metaphor) and prepare ourselves for the acknowledgment of history’s greatest example of sacrifice. But the point of this isn’t just to refuse the accumulation of wealth as defined by CEOs and hedge fund managers. Rather, it’s to discover a whole new conception of fulfillment as demonstrated by Jesus.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the man himself is recorded as saying: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (6:19-20)

We’re going to avoid any sort of complex exegesis on such a hotly debated quotation. However, we don’t think it’s too much of a leap to suggest that – as pop theologians Reza Aslan and Rob Bell do – the “heaven” Jesus referred to in his life was an extremely tangible and political reality, one anchored in restoring justice, redeeming slaves and fighting for the marginalized, all within the context of ancient Israel. He announced and embodied the Year of Jubilee.

Put another way, in relocating the source of our treasure from material possessions to human and non-human lives – to “live simply so others may simply live,” as someone wise once said – we might stumble upon the same rewarding path Jesus once wandered. Sure, it’ll take some time to adjust (learning to walk or ride in a car culture is tough enough), but simplifying our lives might just save our souls. Or something.

Your responses
As with previous weeks, the response to messages from the Lent for Skeptics crew has been strong and diverse. Below are a few of the perspectives we’ve received.

Winona Senner kindly relayed some insights from a booklet of 40 Lenten meditations by Clinton Lee Scott (published by the Unitarian Universalist Association):

Lent should be a season not of gloom but of cheer, not sulphur and molasses but maple syrup and raised doughnuts, a time to celebrate the goodness, the beauty, and the utility in life. Lent is a time not for monastic introspection but for expansion of mind and heart, for vigorous exercise and deep breathing, a time for getting the whole self tuned up so it can function harmoniously with the forces that lift the tulips and make the grass grow. It is a time for becoming more alive, for making love with your mate and getting acquainted with your children.

Bob Brown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania wrote:

Some members of our church (Stahl Mennonite) have been taking on something called Rice and Beans month. You may have already written about it, but it is a practice of eating simpler meals as a means to be in solidarity with those who only get to eat rice and beans – and are so grateful when they get a meal like that. The great part of it (think Isaiah 58) is that the full story is that you donate the money that you save on your groceries to these places that feed these kids. See more at: eatriceandbeans.com

And finally, we received some more suggestions from Hannah Main-van der Kamp on how to experiment in the Lenten season:

• Eat one meal every day very slowly, chewily, without talk or texting
• Fill a box with items you no longer use. Recycle, donate or dump, but do not replace.
• If you do not have a garden, rent a square metre from a friend, neighbour or stranger. Plant a summer flowering perennial. (Don’t buy, any other gardener will happily donate a corm or tuber or pip)
• Let your prayers be brief and in a private place. Come away smiling.

Please keep us up to date on your adventures and learnings this season by writing us at lentforskeptics [at] geezmagazine [dot] org

Stay slow.

– James, and your friends at Geez

Return to Lent index page
Editor of Lent for Skeptics: lentforskeptics [at] geezmagazine [dot] org