Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season, a Holy Day of Obligation for us Catholics, a time of self sacrifice in preparation for Easter - the highest of Christian holidays!

Ash Wednesday is most known for the crosses we bear on our foreheads for the day, made from the palms of the previous year's Palm Sunday. Part of what many practicing Christians do during Lent is to give up something - not something that is easy to give up, but something that is a sacrifice, that will be noticed during their daily routine. The point is to somehow, on some minuscule level, align ourselves with Christ's sufferings, with the ultimate sacrifice that he made for us. With that in mind, our Lenten sacrifices seem rather trivial, but when done in the right spirit, they meet their objective of sacrifice for Christ. With that spirit in mind, I have decided to give up diet coke (and yes, also the far inferior substitute diet pepsi) for Lent. Once your gasps have died down and you are no longer numb from the shock, I think you will agree that although this seems trivial, it will indeed be a sacrifice for me - and one that the rest of my family may suffer through with me for 40 days, you see I am .....

Sadly, it is true, I am a diet coke addict. There, I said it. Step one, admitted we were powerless over diet coke... I truly love it, crave it, look forward to the first cold, refreshing sip of the day. It's great stuff!!! It doesn't matter the form, although I prefer the can, then the bottle, the fountain - I know, lots of people prefer the fountain version of their favorite poison, but I am not among them

Farewell my beloved diet coke, I hope that the next 40+ days will fade my memory of you and separate us for good.