The Facebook fasters

A few of my friends have given up Facebook for Lent. I cannot quite figure that out. And you see it on people's blogs all over the Internet. It is called a Facebook fast! It is so prevalent that I was able to find and rip off that picture up above with no problem at all.

I admire them for sacrificing something they enjoy, and I know, something does not have to be bad for you in order to give it up for Lent. But what gets me is that people seem to suffer guilt over Facebook. They act as if it is this vice and some of the people who gave it up for Lent are saying that they may not pick it up again when Lent is over.

How about just giving up life, you know?

Go ahead, give up your friends.

Give up talking to people!

Here is another idea: Give up the telephone. I would love to give up the telephone, to tell you the truth. I hate the telephone.


But the telephone is important and it would inconvenience other people if I stopped using it. I cannot just sit at work and let it ring and say, "Ring away, I have given the telephone up for Lent."

I think Facebook is as important as the telephone. And I do not suffer Facebook guilt, I will tell you that right now.

Just the other day I was able to interview this conductor who had worked with Leonard Pennario. I looked him up on Facebook, is how I found him. I looked him up, gave him a buzz and he called me. Beautiful and simple. This was a conductor who had worked with Pennario in the 1990s! I did not have many people who worked with him in that era so that was a find for me. We had a wonderful conversation.

I am not on Facebook all the time, just a few minutes here and there, but I am in better touch with long-distance friends and have gotten to know major figures in the music world. I do not see how my giving up Facebook would benefit me or the world.

Plus, if I made that sacrifice God would see right through it.

He would know that I was giving up Facebook only because I could not give up wine.