Lent, the ashes-to-ashes time of the liturgical year. Penance, mortification, purple vestments, prayer, fasting, abstinence, deprivation, desolation, abnegation, purification, sackcloth and ashes. Ah yes, ashes. Remember Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, the ashes, the dry dirt feeling of them, their grittiness: remember. “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you will return.”