just a little smudge....

Admittedly, I know very little about Catholicism.
All I knew about Mardi Gras was that a huge party went on in New Orleans! I had no clue what Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday was about growing up but that all changed one Wednesday a few years back.

I worked for a company in Kansas City and was part of the screen actors guild. We shipped movie posters and trailers to theatres all over the country. We had a 5 story warehouse downtown packed with current and upcoming movie posters with 2 full floors of very vintage posters, ranging in sizes from 22x28" to 40x60" large.  I do have a few posters that might hold a little value - among them, an original Wizard of Oz, a 50th anniversay Gone with the Wind, 3 Stooges around the world in a Daze and 3 Stooges meet Hercules (which I gave to my brother).

But, I digress.... one morning I got to the office and was enjoying a cup of coffee while I visited with the ladies before work. One of our older associates was the sweetest little lady by the name of Mary Lou. Well, Mary Lou was running late this particular morning and I began to get a little concerned about her safety.  It was totally out of the norm for her to be tardy so when I saw her car pull up, I sighed a bit of relief and watched as she came into the building.

Now you have to understand, Mary Lou was never anything but perfectly put together when she left the house in the morning. So when I saw a smudge of dirt on her forehead, of course I only wanted to help her out and wipe it away before anyone else saw it.  Why.... you'd have thought I had just tried to steal her purse by her reaction!  Little did I know that grayish black area had very special meaning and she was meant to wear it until it wore off.  I think I was as stunned at her utter horror when I tried to help as she was horrified that I would even think of wiping away something so sacred to her!

Suffice it to say, she educated me there and then - and I never ever ever attempted to wipe anything from anyone since!  :)