St Patrick's Column

St Patrick’s Day honors the best and worst of irish culture.Yet, to be Irish is to know that the world will someday break your heart. Against the backdrop of that great truth we can  see elements of the Irish attitude toward life.”Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love makes a memory no one can steal.” Realizing that life can be hard indeed, many Irish phrases are designed to help soften it over time. Laughter is a great weapons for those who feel powerless. Admitting the pains of life, not repressing them, allows us to richly enjoy the joys and surcease that life does offer.

To be Irish is to resist letting the truth get in the way of a good story. A good story may unearth truths about life that no mere fact can damage. The Irish are well aware of our foibles but distill wisdom from them. If worried that you will be held responsible for some loss, the reply is “only a stepmother would blame you.” Knowing the power of passion, the Irish may bless one ot old age with “may you live to 95 and die, shot at the hand of a jealous husband.” For a people addicted to the power and romance of words, they can say, “a silent mouth is sweet to hear.”

Drink takes the edge off the shards of life’s woes. So too,  the irish know that drink is a curse too: “drink makes you shoot at your landlord and then you go and miss him.” “God developed whiskey to keep the Irish from conquering the world.” The Irish will wish well to the abstemious: ”here’s to a temperance supper...and me not there at all.”

St Patrick's Day is said to be the day when winter dreams start their transformation into summer magic.” Stories have attached themselves to St. Patrick like barnacles. I love the idea that a land that had no snakes attributed that to Patrick’s driving them out. I leave it to the reader's imagination to imagine who or what was symbolized by snakes being driven out.

The great breastplate prayer is attributed to Patrick., I love the prayer with its emphasis on the Trinity, or the three and the One, as some say. It sees God’s presence not only up in some unseen heaven, but as pervading our lives here and now. Indeed Celtic spirituality seeks to endow every moment with sacred significance, everyday actions with blessings. that is why the Irish speak so easily of thin places, where heaven and earth seem to more easily join..One story about the Celtic cross is that Patrick was preaching near a Druid standing stone with a sacred circle. Patrick placed a cross over the circle and blessed it. In that way, he did not turn his back on traditions as much as reformulate them into a Christian frame of reference.

While the Irish are religiously devout,they maintain a light touch toward God. That is why they can pray that God takes a liking to , but not too soon, as if one would be courting death. As death draws near, perhaps the unfairness of life can be turned against death itself: “may you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”

Sometimes, i see St Patrick’s Day as a Christian analogue to the Jewish feast of Purim. There you are permitted to let loose enough that you cannot tell the difference between Blessed be Mordecai, or cursed be Haman.” I wish the food were better,but Irish cuisine may well be a contradiction in terms, like Educator’s salaries. Sometimes, we need a bit of release and laughter. So then are we energized to face the hoep and work of the coming spring.