You’re not being helpful –

I have every reason to remember that today is Ash Wednesday,

please don’t try to wipe the the smudge mark off your friend’s forehead.

Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori! –

(Anyway, did you find the coin in the King Cake? )

So begins forty days (remember that the six Sundays between today and Easter don’t count as part of the 40 days) of prayer, fasting, contemplation and community service and not the Lentil season, which is marked by forty days of legume eating and gas passing (but that’s another story.)

And so it goes