the desire for deprivation

lent just ended this past sunday. the strange thing i've noticed about lent (other than the whole "there's a man in the sky" thing) is that people who aren't particularly religious suddenly feel the need to give something up. i heard a number of friends, coworkers and even family members announce plans to sacrifice various guilty pleasures -- reality TV, cheese, soft drinks, facebook...

while all this was going on, i was engaged one afternoon in my new motivational habit -- searching the web for blogs by people who have gone a year without buying anything new. in so doing, i came across all kinds of deprivation-themed stories. blogs by people attempting to give up coffee. or smoking. or swearing. people who went a year with no meat. people who went a year only eating locally-grown food. or raw food. people who went a year getting around solely on their own power. a woman who opted to move into a 90 square-foot apartment in new york city. so... many... cleanses. the vegan cleanse. the wild rose cleanse. the smoothie cleanse.

from our free refills to our texting plans to our internet bandwidth, we are truly moving toward a land of no limits. in a culture of such shameless excess, is it any surprise we're yearning for ways to deprive ourselves?