From spirithome.com:
In Lent, it’s traditional to give up something(s) that we do a lot of and that we find pleasure in. This ‘giving up’ is done : as a discipline for learning self-control, to free our minds from the chase after material things: as a reminder of Christ’s sufferings and what our true pleasures are as followers of Christ, as an act of sorrow over our sin.
Sometimes we don’t notice how certain things we do have gained power over us and dictate our actions. In Lent, we discover these things and give them up so that God can be in charge. Franciscans use the term ‘detachment’ : the less that ‘stuff’ preoccupies your life, the more room there is for God.
And, consequently, the more room there is family. So with this in mind, I am giving up memetrackers for Lent including: Digg’s Topstories, deli.icio.us’s popular list, and Memeorandum (which will be really hard, the new design is very thoughtful and makes the site even more addicting), blogsnow, Technorati’s Explore and Drudge. No more Drudge dammit.
Why these sites? Well I visit these services multiple times an hour to find out what everyone is talking about. Inevitably it leads me to read many stories of interest, that more often then not, have little to do with my priorities and take me off on tangents. Almost always they lead me to being a follower of someone else’s point, someone else’s cause, instead of my own true goals and principals.
Case in point, I’m writing a mini-river of news style aggregator widget to experiment with a few ideas and want to explore RawSugar. Each minute I spend on a Memetracker, and then getting lost in someone else’s threads, keeps me from mine.
Believe it or not, this is going to be hard. Very hard. Memeorandum is like crack. No lie. I work on the web, I live the web. But I know this will give me more time for my family, more time for my friends (including those I follow with Bloglines), and more time to be a dad.
