Growing up in southern Arizona, I was surrounded by folks of two religious persuasions: Catholics and Mormons. Both of them—to my adolescent mind—were obsessed with giving things up.

My Catholic friends gave up all sorts of things during the spring. I didn’t even know enough to call it Lent. I just knew they gave up “stuff” before Easter and seemed to suffer miserably for it. No chocolate, no Slurpees, no cussing, no Nintendo. It seemed awful.

My Mormon friends gave up caffeine year round, which didn’t seem quite as onerous until we [Read more…]