New news. The Simple Life.

When did Come Dine With Me get so big? When did it stop being in the Richard and Judy have gone on holiday slot at tea time (if you live in East Northants) and become the most important thing that could ever happen to television and something that *even* Top Trumps the Friends/Scrubs trade off?! When, I wonder, when. I say this because I am watching it now. (Instead of Scrubs).

Last year Esther and I gave up meat for Lent. Easily one of the most challenging but rewarding personal experiences of my 23 or so years. I have no will power (hence having to take on the challenge in a tag team) but we did it. Give or take a bacon and brie panini. So this year I felt a bit of a burden to out-do that experience, or at least meet it. The result of this has been a commitment to The Simple Life. This seemed a fairly simple concept in my (and my faithful friend's) head/s. Give up the things in life which are comfortable for a few weeks. Easy..well, it seemed so.

With the meat thing it was fairly easy to discern what was allowed and what wasn't. If looked delicious and like it formerly lived in a farmyard, we couldn't eat it. If it was brown and soggy, we probably could. But this thing involves giving up stuff that aren't necessary. It means not buying snacks from Oasis at work. Done. It involves not checking internet on my phone. Tick. It means only eating, drinking and buying the things that I really need. Hard. So it's been 4 days and I have eaten and drunk out every day. Forsaking one drink and a couple of fruit scones does not equate to living simply, it's just a little bit of a joke. Now, it doesn't matter that I haven't met the rules, they are simply put in place for the sake of a personal challenge, but it makes me a bit sad about how much comfort cushions my life. I have money so I spend it. I have time so I burn it. Now I know I should be grateful not to be in need - I am - but I don't want to become numb to the reality of it.

So I'm not really sure the point of this challenge at the moment but I hope that there might be one. It would be easier if it were more absolute and measurable, but I hope that there might be some benfit from keeping vague. If I'm not counting it in terms of BTP trips missed then it might make me dwell more on the why rather than that what. I think it's about being able to recognise what real need is. And I do know what need is. I've lived among it in Calcutta for a few months. Not enough food, not enough shelter, not enough love...that's need. But all of these things exist in abundance in my life in Exeter and so I think I live in real danger of forgetting what to live in plenty means, and just to accept my ridiculously comfortable life as being normal. Now, nothing of what I might give up would ever even dare to be a comparable experience to living in such extreme destitution as what I have mentioned. So that cannot be the point of it. But my experience of living amongst physical need has been spiritual richness. I have at times tried to convince myself the God of Calcuuta is more real than the one of Exeter. But this is just so, so, so not true. But there is less stuff getting in the way of hanging out with Him there, I make less obsticles for myself, I rely on Him before Dominoes. (Actually, not entirely true. Dominoes tastes pretty flippin good there too, but *slightly* less readily available). So maybe that is the point just there. Not that this tiny attempt at living more simply might genuinely convince me that I am in geographical Calcutta, but that through seeking God before stuff, on some occassions, might help me refind my own personal Calcutta..with Jesus, in 73 Park Road.

That said, I'm off out for a curry now. It's a learning curve....