This was my first "blog post," written a year ago before I had a blog. I posted it on facebook, but wanted to add it here. My apologies for boring you if you already saw it there!
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My eyes were drawn to the face of the man across the room. I intentionally pulled them away. He was too far away to tell for sure, but it looked like he had a giant scab on his forehead. But maybe it was a birthmark.
Brian and I sat down for lunch. As we were eating, he leaned over and whispered, "At BU today, there were these people with black T's on their foreheads. Do you know if that means something?" My mind darted from election turnout to religious ceremonies, but came up empty. "Muslim holiday?"
Curious to know what it might be, I turned to Google. Well, it turns out that some people in this world are Catholic, and that means more for them than going to mass! All day long, we kept seeing people with black smudges on their foreheads, a reminder that "from dust we came, to dust we will return."
And all my life, I thought Ash Wednesday had something to do with trees.
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3 comments:
hehe. yes.
my first realization of what happened on ash wednesday came in boston too - i was walking down the infinite corridor at MIT, and all these people coming towards me had dark smudges on their foreheads...i had no idea what was going on - the apocalypse? is this what the mark would look like? etc. - getting a little panicky. i eventually figured it out though, and had to laugh a little at myself.
Today was Val's first Ash Wednesday in Catholic-land and she was telling me this afternoon that she was baffled at first until it dawned on her what day it was.
i think i knew about ash wednesday before, but i didn't realize how important it was and how people commemorate the day until boston too. :)
i've also given up things for lent since boston also, mainly because i do like the heart of that tradition - to remember and to participate in His sacrifice. of course, we are to do that everyday of the year, but... nonetheless, i haven't put too much thought into it yet, so i'm glad you've reminded me. :)
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