Nonetheless, later this month (February 22, 2023) millions of Christians across the world - Catholic, Lutheran, Anglicans, others – will also don gray smudges on their brows to commemorate Ash Wednesday.
These days, in places like H-town, you don’t see too many people wearing their religion on their face. One could not blame the man for mistaking my visible marker of inward penance and outward allegiance to a particular strand of religiosity…for dirt. Ashes smudged on my forehead in the shape – if you looked at it just right and from a 43-degree angle – of a cross. Several years ago, when I was living in Houston, TX, a man walked up to me at a local café and kindly said, 'Excuse me sir, you've.um.I think you have dirt on your face.'
