Announcing Remember, O Thou Man 2023 (+ a few other things)

How is it already almost Lent again.

Ahem. I assume a lot of you know the drill already, but in case you don’t, allow me to explain. And elaborate. And bring out new graphics. And ramble about some unrelated stuff.

Tallyho!

Lent is a Formidably Neat Thing

So Lent, of course, is the period of forty days’ fasting, prayer and penance that precedes Easter. Most commonly observed in the Roman Catholic Church, but I do believe some of my Protestant friends also partake.

To pull a few lines verbatim from my previous ‘Announcing Remember O Thou Man’ post, Lent is meant to be a time to solemnly reflect on one’s own mortality, the four last things, and the passion and death of Our Lord. The forty days mirrors the forty days Christ spent in the desert, fasting and praying–although there are many other biblical parallels. In traditional Catholicism, four is the number of the world and mortality; traditionally–check the Catechism of the Council of Trent, fellow Catholics–four thousand years passed between the fall of man and Christ’s passion. There are four horsemen of the apocalypse, four last things–you actually see this reflected even in non-religious, worldly logic. Four points of the compass, four elements etc.

So that’s Lent and that’s also way more than you ever wanted to know about the number 4.

(Even if you don’t celebrate Lent, though, hang on a hot second because I’m not finished.)

Lent is a Formidably Neat Thing That Deserves Some Bloggerly Attention

I know a lot of us disappear off the blogosphere during Lent, but I plan to stick around, same as I did last year. I have my personal reasons for not leaving, but as far as blogging goes, one thing I’ve noticed in my long years as a lurker without actually blogging is that there’s not a lot of bloggerly fanfare over Lent. We do it for other seasons, liturgical and not, and especially things like Christmas and Easter…but Lent just doesn’t get a lot of love.

I understand. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like a pleasant thing. Penance is tough and interrelated things can be tough to think about.

But I decided last year that I wanted to spend my blogging time in Lent talking about Lent, or at least Lenten things. Partially because as much as I love Lent, I do find it tough. And I thought I may as well extend it to my blogging approach, as a way to continue to motivate myself through it.

And so, for the second year in a row…

Remember, O Thou Man 2023

Hey, look, I even brought back one of the graphics!

(To be honest, it’s just because I was so pleased with this one I wanted to repurpose it for this year. I made all new other ones, but I think this one is officially the Remember O Thou Man graphic.)

Ahem. Yes. I did this last year, mostly just to keep myself accountable to you people–and was rather shocked by how many people joined in. Not because I don’t think y’all like Lent, rather ‘cuz I wasn’t exactly expecting a ‘linkup’ from my tiny corner of the blogosphere to go anywhere. I guess that’s the nature of a link-up; tends to spread round, if people like the idea.

So what we have learned is that a lot of us actually like Lent.

No surprise there. It’d be silly not to like it.

But it’s just…encouraging. And makes me very happy, to know that so many of us love the dear old season. It makes one feel a little less lonely in the world we live in, you know.

You know, reader. You’re that kind of understanding person. I feel confident you know.

Ahem.

The title of the linkup, of course, refers to the line from the Ash Wednesday liturgy ‘Remember O thou man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.’ Or something to that extent.

On to some more official ‘rules’ then.

Per last year’s post:

1. Write a blog post that somehow boils down to a meditation on one of the four last things–Death, Judgement, Heaven, or Hell.
2. That’s all.
3. Well, the other thing is that you can use the graphics. I mean, that’s why I made ’em, ha. Two more to come later in the post, but yes, please feel free to use them.
4. Oh, and also, I would love it if you could link your blog post up in the comments section of this one. Because I could always use more Lenten content to read.
5. You don’t have to credit me (I mean, you can if you want to, but you don’t have to), because for me to make one of the rules ‘credit me’ on a series about Lent would be the most hypocritical thing since the Pharisees.
6. Basically, just do Lent, but on your blog.

Well, you don’t have to do Lent all Lent on your blog, but that’s what I’ll be doing. And I’ll certainly be pleased if you end up doing it with me. 🙂

Even if you don’t usually do Lent, by all means, please go ahead and write a post on one of the dear old last things. And it doesn’t have to be explicitly on that. As you probably saw last year, you can keep up your usual content. The book and film analyzers can keep on analyzing, the lifestyle bloggers can keep on lifestyling. And yes, the folk music blogger can keep on folk music-ing. The idea of Lent is not necessarily to drop existence and sit in sackcloth, because most of us can’t do that. Rather, in our daily lives, to keep habits of penitence, meditation, and self-abnegation. So the same kind of thing can happen here. It’s ‘boils down to a meditation on the four last things’, not ‘talking about nothing but the four last things.’ And it works.

And I feel confident in saying that because…hey, it worked last year.

It was a beautiful little blogosphere season for me, and I was so delighted to see all of your lovely posts along with it. So I’m very excited about this Lent, both on and off the blogosphere.

So yeah. I’m excited. I hope you are too. 🙂

On a more housekeeping note, I did mean to have an actual post rather than just an announcement today. But then tax-filing claimed my weekend (what a depressingly adult thing to say). So unfortunately it’s just the announcement. But I also did want to ask you guys: what would you like to see for a sort of last-hurrah-before-more-solemn-posts–blogging Mardi Gras, if you will? Last year, I did a ‘Hunger Games’ with my characters. This year I considered doing a rematch with some of my favorite literary characters, or maybe just my own characters again–or possibly, some of the best folk song characters. But I didn’t know if y’all would like to see that again. The other thing I considered was a Q&A. I have no clue if anybody wants to know anything about me, or about folk music, but I thought about doing a dual ask-me-your-questions-and-I-might-tell-you-lies (kidding of course) for me and for general folk music knowledge.

So those are the two things I considered for Mardi Gras. Let me know in the comments which one you would prefer; leave questions, if you’d like a Q&A, or if you have another idea altogether for something you’d like to see me do, feel free to leave that as well. Regardless, tell me your thoughts on my somewhat sub-par graphic design skills, year two of Remember, O Thou Man, and most especially, Lent.

Thank you friends, and I’ll see you soon!