What 'Fish on Friday' Truly Means

I'm a Catholic.  (Not a 'Roman' Catholic though, as i do not recognise white and western hegemony over the idea of 'God'.)  So what do i think of this observance by Catholics, or at least a good number of them (i hope)?

Well yes.  It is important, especially when interned within capitalist, hedonistic, consumeristic socioeconomic conditions that constantly focuses one on self-interest at the expense of another.  So it is important that one partakes in this weekly 'spiritual spa-like detoxification and exfoliation'.  It's not that fish does wonders for the soul.  But abstinence, within a satanic secular climate where indulgence and reaction is promoted, through the consumption of fish, might help the scales fall from one's eyes.

But, of course, it doesn't work if you're going to douse your fishy with a 1000 and half Island archipelago of a dressing, complemented by a nice bottle of wine from Tescos, and a box and a half of After-8s.  There has to be abstinence from what you like, or what you are accustomed to.

So if you're Japanese, having fish on friday gives you no credit, an certainly not if it is of the whale-variety.
Cooking it Chinese-style might work, as it is bland. But for the chinese, that's still strangely delicious, so that sort of cooking style doesn't work to give credit to the Chinese if they have it on friday. So to make it less indulgent for them, just lay off the MSG, or do a 'stir-fry' without the 'stir' or 'fry'.  Your choice.
For the Indians, curried-anything still makes the dish delicious, so they could go for the chinese-style themselves.  And no, if Indians are wondering, 'Fish 65' isn't going to work either.
As for the English, given that they actually find 'fish and chips' delicious, which always came across as papier-mache moistened-in-oil and doused in vinegar to me with more than a smidgen of salt, that wouldn't work either.  Go as plain as you can.

No.  This wouldn't work either.  Remember 'Gluttony'?

Psychologically, the very act of doing what you are not accustomed to, and not doing what gratifies you, is itself a break from a week of doing what you are accustomed to for self-gratification, for your boss's gratification, or for the gratification of feeling you're a trendy person who just goes with the latest fashions as opposed to engaging in some 'archaic', 'antiquated' practice of the 'past'.

So if you're a vegetarian, or a 'Vegan', or even a Martian, it would help to abstain from that scrummy piece of asparagus beckoning to you in all its seductive succulence, or staying off your Mars bar for that day (for the Martians that is).

"Take a break, and stay of indulgence", that's the key.  No, that doesn't serve as the Biblical 'keys' to the Pearly Gates, and i doubt that Saint Peter has it dangling from a fish hook.  It's going to take more than a smaller helping of sashimi for that i'm afraid.


So with that, we head on to the 2nd part of this sermon.....

Fish on Friday is supposed to be the preschool of catholicism.
It is supposed to be like a nursery rhyme with values to be taught to children to inculcate in them the right morals and view of things,
AND which is then supposed to translate to a life of good works toward people betwixt Fridays.

The problem with Fish on Friday is that, whilst it is a break from a week of indulgence, it might also serve as an absolution from a week of indulgence, so that you can go forth and sin again with the knowledge of that spiritual acquatic spa you're going to indulge in on Friday.  Yup, you read correctly.

Fish on Friday then becomes an indulgence matey.  An indulgence that you suppose will buy you out of feeling that you're just a hypocritical plonker for paying tithes via the consumption of the product of tides so that you can get your arse to heaven.  So because of that, your abstinence is limited to fingers of fish to the offerings of a bloke in Long Johns.

Fish on Friday is supposed to be the preschool of catholicism, or christianity, or any other religion where abstinence is supposed to detoxify you from the spirit of narcisstic times, whilst keeping in mind the other precepts and tenets that accompanies the faith.  It is supposed to be like a nursery rhyme with values to be taught to children to inculcate in them the right morals and view of things, AND which is then supposed to translate to a life of good works toward people betwixt Fridays.

Remember, Fish on Friday and that Sunday Mass is an Introduction to Catholicism, not its Practice.

Once you get there, Fish on Friday becomes a preschool book which you appreciate as the childhood 'ABCs building blocks' that you play with before you get a proper non-americanised and non-OMGenised vocabulary which renders the said building blocks superfluous.  Remember, Fish on Friday and that Sunday Mass is an Introduction to Catholicism, not its Practice.

Whatever your evils and vices, whatever your fetishes and penchants, how you treat people daily is important.  Consideration, interest, kindness, empathy, thoughtfulness, self-sacrifice, is key.  And yes, those are the keys that Saint Peter swings on his forefinger as he leans against the Pearly Gates, with a fish serving only as its key-chain.

edX