Show Your…Spirit!

It’s Fat Tuesday. It’s the day to show your…beads. This year, I’m making an extra effort to show my spirit during this celebration.

As a bit of brief background for the Lutherans in our audience, Fat Tuesday (also known as Shrove Tuesday or Fausnacht Day) is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, or the last day before Lent. In places of sizable Catholic populations (and warmer weather) people often celebrate by wildly dancing in scanty costumes to spicy music. (continued)Fortunately for local Lutherans, in other locales, they celebrate by eating pancakes, crepes, or doughnuts. Perhaps the Quarterback Club and The Tavern are having specials on pancakes today. And I’ll bet Sue will give you a deal on a doughnut at Quality Bakery, but only if you show your beads. Tell her Ross sent you.

But back to the extra spirit thing. Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, is often regarded as one last chance to celebrate before the more subdued period of Lent, the 40 days of fasting and praying before Easter Sunday. It’s supposed to help you get through the lean period.

In these challenging times, it’s probably not a bad thing to partake in a moderate amount of excessive eating, drinking, and general bawdiness (now and then), as long as you’re wearing the beads, reminding yourself and others that it’s really about faith (green), justice (purple), and power (gold). Perhaps in our current situation, it’s faith that we’ll make through to better times, a commitment to insuring that our proposed solutions provide justice to all, and the confidence that, together, we have the power to make it happen.

So put on your beads, have a drink, or a pancake, and maybe sing “Happy Days Are Here Again” to a second-line beat. Let’s celebrate together…hey, at least we’re not in Detroit.