For the past few years, I’ve given up something for Lent. I wouldn’t say I’ve enjoyed it, but I’ve appreciated what I’ve learned about myself.

In different years, I’ve given up coffee and meat and alcohol.

This year, it’s politics.

No reading political stories or emails.

No listening to, reading or watching the news if it might include political items.

No visiting facebook groups to see if a piece of used wrapping paper has more fans than a Senator.

And most of all, no talking (or writing) about politics.

Because we’re here on Ash Wednesday (or we were when I wrote this…technical difficulties), I won’t detail specific examples of why I’m giving this up for Lent.* But I will say, in general, why I’m fasting from politics.

Part of it is that politics makes me angry. I get really worked up over people who don’t know what they are talking about telling other people what to think. This is my broad brush assessment of the political climate in which I find myself. From the top office in the land to the average Joe on Facebook—nearly everyone talks past each other instead of with each other. Those who agree with us are smart and those who don’t lack common sense. We slander our opponents and misrepresent their positions as if truth were a luxury unaffordable in the most prosperous nation on the planet.

Politics is a game that we must win at any cost.

Most of us see politics as a game like any other. Maybe a bit more like professional wrestling than some other games. Really, it’s better than any other show on TV. The characters, the stories, the fights, the lies—it’s all an amazing melodrama.

And that’s just the news.

Even though I see this is happening, I still think I buy into it. I think I believe that winning—getting the right people in or keeping the wrong people out or whatever—will be some magical event that makes everything instantly better. And that because of this, anything I do or think or say about someone is fair game.

But that’s not true.

I’d say why, but then I’d be writing about politics.

All that said, I’d love to hear about your Lenten vow.

What are you giving up for Lent and why?

*This really should have been posted on Fat Tuesday and I tried to keep as much political opinion out as possible. But if this day is supposed to be solemn, this post has definitely brought me to that place.