Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Please celebrate responsibly

Well boy howdy and faith and begorrah if this isn’t the perfect opportunity to inject some much needed levity into the collective shitshow that is this Quarter. You know, dear reader, the world has gone, to put it lightly, a bit cracked.

The economy is once again well on its way toward being in the shitter (it should really think about getting a punch card at this point), the housing market is (again) borked, inflation is as high as a giraffe’s asshole, and Putin’s pulled off the geopolitical equivalent of getting his dick caught in a zipper.

If you were looking for a reason to drink, here’s your sign.

St. Patrick’s day has always held a special place in my heart. I’m American but I’m rather unique in that I have only Irish descent (that’s right, ladies, you’re dealing with a thoroughbred). As such it’s always been kind of, well, “my day.” It’s been a little bit of a downer, then, when some people online have called for St. Patrick’s Day to be effectively cancelled in light of recent events.

And you know, as I sit here nursing the prerequisite glass of Irish whiskey (Redbreast Lusteau by the by) I find myself waxing poetic at their argument. Is it wrong to celebrate in such times? May we be allowed a fleeting moment of peace and fellowship in a life of storms or is doing so merely our enactment of a celtic- off brand version of The Masque of the Red Death, carousing with friends in a gaily lit bar or living room in some shallow attempt to stave off the terrible acknowledgment of the suffering experienced by one’s fellow man? Is it somehow indelicate to bask in the peculiarities of one’s heritage as the world teeters ever closer to the edge?

I say nay….and either way we’re drinking so top yourself off.

You see St. Patrick's Day is about more than a good time. It’s about coming together as a country, a community, a friend group to find a spark of joy in whatever darkness the world tosses our way. It’s about laughing during the hard times and cracking a smile just to show you can. For as an Irish dramatist once said: “laughter is wine for the soul- laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness- the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.”

And thats just what this day is about, my friend, remembering that life is a thing to be celebrated. Such mean defiance may be small compared to the deeds of others, true, but all great trees were once small seeds.

As I’ve said: St. Patrick’s day is “my day” but it’s more than that. It’s “our day,” dear reader.

For as the saying goes: “everybody’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.'“

I can hear a tin whistle and fiddle just by looking at this picture

This song unto all who would gather together and

hold

Brother by brother;

A watch and a ward by the watch-fire of Eri, our

old

And long-weeping mother.

This song unto all who would stand by the fire of

her hope,

And droop not, nor slumber;

But keep up the high and mirthful proud

courage to cope

With wrongs beyond number.

This song unto all who would gather and help yet

once more,

Eri, our mother;

And do naught that would anger the famous and

great gone before

Brother by brother

- The Watch-Fire, W.B Yeats

And furthermore:

“Everything will be alright in the end…if it’s not alright- it’s not the end!” - Irish Proverb

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all.