About a month or so ago I watched an intruiguing TED talk by Swiss author Alain de Botton. His talk outlined a secular way to approach life that incorporates religious-like traditions that take the good from religion and leave out the bad. I came to the realization today, while catching myself staring at the forehead of the person behind me in the pizza line, that giving something up or abstaining from a bad habit may be a great way to implement what Alain outlined in his talk.

In short I am proposing a secular Lent: a time where even the most damned of the damned give up some habit or cherished material luxury for a period of time. I am unsure what I will be giving up for Lent this year—a strict timeline is one of the things I don’t care about in my version of this tradition—but I hope that after an extended period of time without this thing I will be able to reflect on my experience. Perhaps I will be able to appreciate that thing more? Maybe I will come to the realization that this thing has actually made my life less enjoyable or more complicated? I don’t know, but I see no negatives in the tradition itself, and hope to appreciate the positives.