Ashes On Your Forehead, Whaddya Do?

Wipe that dirt off your forehead you look like an idiot.
Ash Wednesday drives me crazy. Strange religious fanatics walking around with ashes on their foreheads. I think it would be cooler if they walked around with gobs of dried blood on their heads and fake plastic nails attached to the palm of each hand; that would be more dramatic.
Ashes just look silly.
The ashes are made by burning the blessed palms that were distributed last year on Palm Sunday. The priest blesses the ashes and sprinkles them with holy water. Dips his right thumb in the ashes, makes the sign of the cross on your forehead and says something along the lines of "Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return." The distribution of ashes reminds us of our own mortality and calls us to repentance. The ashes are a reminder of our own sinfulness and many Catholics leave them on their foreheads all day as a sign of humility.
I see it more as a sign of hilarity.
A few people levitated into The Booze Emporium with dirt on their heads yesterday and I found the image entertaining. Snapping up a bottle of hootch so they could go home, get drunk and screw the neighbor's wife. If they rubbed foreheads and co-mingled ashes, would it increase the intensity of the love-making? Could just be my cynicism in play here; maybe they were going home to get drunk and pray to Jesus for a winning Powerball ticket, promising to tithe 10% to the church.
Did you see Tony Reali on Around The Horn yesterday? He had a smudge that almost covered his entire forehead. It is difficult for me to believe that Tony is a devout Catholic. I prefer to believe that he was spoofing the whole deal, and in that frame of reference it was hilarious.
Of course Santorum was running around the country sporting head mud. Phony piece of garbage. Sporting the sign of the cross on his forehead while he tries to regress this country 50 years  by eliminating abortion, and contraception, re-introducing guilt to sex, introducing religion into government as a major consideration in any decision process, and lobbying to have Jesus Christ as his running mate.
I have no problem with you participating in religious rituals, I have no problem with you believing devoutly. But don't run around with dirt on your head. You look like a friggin' idiot. It proves nothing. If you want to be reminded of your mortality and sinfulness and lust for redemption, if you want to be humble, turn inwards.  Feel what you feel, believe what you believe and do it with conviction.
But don't position your dirty forehead in front of me and expect me not to laugh. I keep a bottle of water under the counter at work. I was so tempted to wet down a cleaning rag and and say "You have something on your forehead, let me take care of that."
But I didn't dare. Just in case they are on to something. I'm 58 for Christ sake. Gotta cover all my bases.