My Disillusioned Self

Today, Day #1 of abstaining from everything. I’m actually pretty suprised how simple it has been to not eat anything. I do have one prediction though, I’m going to be awfully bored of just water at the end of all this. As for hunger pangs? Not much really. Yes, I am hungry but not where I feel like I am “starving”.

On a side note, I saw a bum holding a sign today “Hungry and no money. God Bless.” It made me think in the car the importance of what I am doing. I can honestly say that I have been “blessed” if you will, in the fact that I have from memory never had to be forced to be hungry. If nothing else it will allow me to understand slightly those who for whatever reason are unable to afford food and don’t know when their next meal is going to be. The difference is that I know when my end date will be.

You may ask yourself Did I give him money? No, Which is a departure from character from what I normally would do. Normally I would take a few dollars and give it to the guy. Today, I felt no need.

Well 19.5 Hours with 340.5 more to go.

I have decided to fast and abstain from my daily wants.  I feel that I have reached the point of overindulgence in life and that a lot can be learned from abstaining from the overindulgences. I wish I could tell you what made me feel this way. Unfortunately, any attempt to do that would be lying to you because I have no idea.  What I can tell you is that it happened around 11:30PM last night.During the next 15 days, 30 if I decide to continue longer, I will abstain from the following things:

1) Food - Yes, everything, not even a nibble of lettuce.

2) Sexual Activity - All forms, including “self gratification”

 3) Pornography - Kind of goes hand and hand with #2 why torture myself further?

4) Alcohol

5) Anything That is liquid and not water (maybe pedialyte for proper electrolyte balance while fasting)

6) “Things” - Part of my spiritual cleansing is to not aqcuire any more “things” other than what is necissary to survive (ex. more gas, school supplies, vitamins, etc.)I’m hoping that I learn something from this experience. I don’t yet know what I’m going to learn but, it can’t be that bad, can it? After a long period of not blogging we may yet find a period of me abstaining interesting. 

7) Exception to #6 - I figure since eating takes approximately 15-30 minutes, not including the actually cooking part, I will have a lot of extra time during the day.  I plan on purchasing and reading the books I consider important on my book list and reflecting upon them on this blog.  Booklist is at the bottom of this post.

Here goes nothing as they say!

Books I will be reading:

On The Social Contract by Jean-Jazques Rousseau

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Cannery Row by John Steinback

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky