Staying away from tripe…

Two days into Lent and I'm still managing to stay off the tripe. Yes, I've been observing lent my whole life and it's made me a better person - even though it’s been a real struggle. This year I almost gave up Lent for Lent, but then I remembered all those other Lents, the sacrifices I’ve made over the years, and thought better of it. Hang-gliding, One man and his Dog, Eastenders, The Bay City Rollers, Hair shirts, and now tripe, have all been, at one time or another, sacrificed for forty long days and forty even longer nights in the pursuit of purity.

Mind you, these days there is so little left for me to give up. Most of my ‘vices’ have fizzled out of their own accord or been confiscated by my wife. It gets harder and harder each year to find a worthy ‘Lent-ill’ as I call them.

My life seems to be a constant struggle between abstinence and excess, a little like ‘The Fight Between Carnival and Lent’ by my old mate Pieter Bruegel the younger.

As many of you may know, I never miss an opportunity to show off young Pieter’s work, regardless of how tenuous the link. Back in 1559 he depicted the Lent festival, as celebrated in the Southern Netherlands, when he painted the contrast between two sides of contemporary life at the time. It’s all about balance you see: the appearance of the inn on the left side - for fun and a jolly good time, and a church on the right side - for enforced obedience and guilt. Well-behaved children near the church, a riotous beerfest at the pub.

I’m clearly at the Inn guzzling down a pint or two, although it’s not easy to see the pious guilt on my face. Yes, I’m crying all down my underwear as I drink myself into another drunken haze. Woe is me!

As James Blunt sings: ‘My life is brilliant.’ Yes, my tongue IS firmly in my cheek. But, like the figure of King Carnival in the painting (he of the pork pie head, bulging red pants, and big sausage on a stick) bidding a left-handed farewell as he raises his eyes to the sky, Lent will eventually triumph. All praise the Holy Jesus!

Sausage anyone?

Oh well, after reading this back it seems like I didn’t manage to stay off the tripe after all - perhaps I should give up blogging for Lent.