Lent, and the practice of fasting for the forty days before Easter, had Biblical origins in the stories of Moses and Elijah but especially with the experience of Jesus and the Devil in the wilderness. In the early church those who were to be baptised at Easter were expected to fast first. In the church, during the fast, Christians were only allowed one meal a day towards evening. Meat and fish, along with cheese and butter dishes were usually forbidden. The practice of fasting continued after the Reformation, but now is often the time when Christians, who abstain from festivities, devote themselves to generous giving and more than their usual religious practices. However, the Bengali poet and philosopher, Tagore, helps me to recognise that a recurring human problem is my endemic and insistent self-interest.