The meme of the week relates to this earliest Lent in 95 years we began on Wednesday.

1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?

No Mardi Gras celebration...it was Super Tuesday. I voted and was vaguely disappointed at some local results in Chicago. I celebrated Ash Wednesday by leading a service for the 14 of my parishioners who could get out in the waning hours of an Ash Wednesday mini-blizzard.

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?

Mardi Gras: The time I acted as Master of Ceremonies for my aunt D's Crewe in Mobile when she was honored as the President/Queen...it was fun.

Ash Wednesday: My first one as a pastor...I had rushed back from my last, and far less successful year of being the MC in Mobile (5th time was NOT the charm), and for the first time applied ashes to the dear folks here.

Lent: 2006...the best planned, most meaningful Lenten observation of my pastoral career...for me. You'd have to ask the folks what they thought.

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?

Nope. Southern Baptist. Lent was too Catholic. Not til I went to Crazy Liberal Baptist in GodisaRepublicanville. I discovered it then, when I saw my first purple parament.

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?

I'm in the give up stuff forever if at all and the take on prayer and possibly a Lenten Self-Denial Offering where something that costs money is forgone so that the money can be given to some charitable cause. The idea that God wants us to "celebrate" Lent by eschewing things that bring us joy and pleasure doesn't fit my theology...but I see how it can work for other world views and respect that.

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?

Well, I'm going on vacation during Lent...so I'll keep it in part by having Sabbath time, and I'll keep it by seeking to have a deeper prayer life...but that's something I hope continues after Easter...I made it a focus of my Ash Wed. message and I want to practice what I preach.