Hey there, FDers.  It’s Mardi Gras!  Woo-hoo!  Party on, party hard, and party hearty.  Especially all you Catholics out there.

Because if you are a Catholic, you just know there will be a li’l bit of penance for that fun.  Like, 40 days’ worth.  It’s called Lent, and it starts tomorrow on Ash Wednesday.  Break out the hair shirts!

When it comes to other people’s religions, I feel the same way as I do about their sex lives.  Do what you want.  If it works for you and brings you happiness, have at it.  As long as you’re not trying to convert anyone and if all parties are 18 or over, we’re cool.

Therefore, I don’t necessarily wanna knock Catholicism.  But it’s soooo ripe for the knocking!   In the interest of brevity, let’s skip over the molesterer priests, the Crusades, and the corruption and focus on the guilt.

The guilt!  The ingrained guilt that my “recovering Catholic” (they all use this exact phrase) friends feel is deeply rooted and real.  As my mom’s Sicilian amica Dolores once said, “if Catholics and Jews ever staged a guilt-off, it’d end in a tie.”

So I say check your guilt at the door, have your Mardi Gras fun, and enjoy the next 40 days.  And please give yourself permission to enjoy this cartoon.  As usual, I wrote it, and my super-cool rationalist husband Rusty drew it.  Cheers!

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