St. Patrick's Day

Yes, let's all go out and be Irish, drink thousands of gallons of beer, get completely pissed out of our heads, and wake-up with those same poor heads throbbing like the drums in a Sioux war dance. Oh, yes, that's the perfect way to celebrate the traditions of Ireland and the memory of a good man.

I will admit, despite being proudly Irish-American, that St Patrick's Day here in America is a rather useless holiday. You can't even get it off work, unless it falls on the weekend, and you really go out and do is drink far too much alcohol. Is everyone trying to relive the glory days of being in college and never being less than permanently half-drunk?  Hmm.

What a way to celebrate a day that is the only Holiday America has dedicated to a missionary. For that is who Patrick of Ireland was, what his whole being centered around - preaching and converting people to Christianity. In fact, in can be argued, in light of facts, that Patrick was instrumental, instrumental, in preserving the shadow of the Classical World for the people of the Renaissance and today. But that discrepancy is typical of this country and our current culture- we "celebrate" a religious holiday that honors the most famous missionary of all time by frivolously drinking away and carousing into all hours of the night.

Hmm.

Food for thought, tá?