Fasting and Feasting

When I was in graduate school, one of my professors mentioned in passing that it's always more powerful to tell students what you want them to do rather than what you don't. So instead of saying, "Don't be late," or "Don't forget the test tomorrow," it's more effective to say, "Be on time," or "Remember to study tonight." When I started teaching, I found his advice to be accurate, and that simple act of reframing has shaped most of my conversations since.

I read a Lenten meditation the other day by The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, a dean of the National Cathedral. In it, he cited a reflection adapted from We Dare to Say: Praying for Justice and Peace, eds. Sylvia Skrepichuk & Michel Cote, which includes a list of suggested fasts, a traditional practice for Lent, but also some corresponding feasts: attitudes, acts of devotion, or services that one might add for the season.

For example, readers are encouraged to fast from anger, feast on patience; to fast from bitterness, feast on forgiveness; and to fast from thoughts that weaken, feast on promises that inspire. The notion of abstaining from knee-jerk negativity and focusing instead on a reciprocal, positive action or attitude is as enlightening as my professor's counsel was all those years ago. 

Now, if I can just do it.