Benjamin Dueholm ponders Ash Wednesday:
Not that long ago, contemplating mortality and feeling contrition for grave failings were considered noble pursuits. They were the themes of great literature and popular music alike. In our culture we have come, more often, to view these same experiences as neuroses. Grief is edging closer to being defined as a species of depression. Anxiety over the inevitability of death has become something to be resolved through a process ending in "acceptance," as though being sundered from everyone and everything one loves is the sort of thing one can become good at.
(Photo: A young woman prays during an Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle February 17, 2010 in Washington, DC. By Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The Dish 
