Out of hiatus

Hello blog, old friend. I've been away for awhile. Not really sure why, probably just life getting in the way. The family and I have been through a lot the past couple of years so the writing came to a stand still, but I can't stay away any longer. I need to get my thoughts out there again so here we go.

Today is St. Patrick's Day to most of the world. I've never been a partier, so this is one holiday I can easily overlook since the enjoyment of going out to drink green beer and my loathing of corned beef and cabbage really kills it all for me. As for the wearing of the green, most people can't tell you why green is associated with St. Patrick's Day so here's your history lesson for the week. St. Patrick, who may or may not have chased all the snakes out of Ireland, used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to non-Christian Irish. "Wearing of the green" was indicating a shamrock worn on your person to show Irish Nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church. Since around the 1700's, the shamrock or shamrock like designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the Saint's holiday.

Before the 1700's, however, St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in blue. The Saint was most depicted wearing blue and is the color of the Irish coat of arms, Presidents Standard, and many other flags of Ireland are Blue and Gold. But I digress…

The real reason for my writing today was because of a little story about my daughter Drew. We all know that the absence of green on this particular day leads to pinching from our fellow friends and others we'd like to knock the living crap out of because they see fit to pinch us, friends or not. So, without hesitation, my wife instructed me to dress our daughter in green today and I set out to find the appropriate attire. When I woke Drew up this morning, she immediately looked at the chosen outfit and announced, "I'm not wearing green". I started to explain the reason for the choice and she promptly stated, "Dad, I WANT to be pinched".

After picking my mouth up off the floor, I stammered around trying to make sure I clearly heard what she said. As if to answer my dumbfound look, she quickly added, "Maki, David and…well, they are all pretty cute so they can pinch me and I don't mind. So, no green today, OK?"

No, it's not OK; who are you and where is my 7 year old daughter? We fought over this subject most of the morning. I won of course, because I'm dad and no one is pinching my girls until 25, maybe 30 if they push it. If looks could kill, I wouldn't be writing this now. I'm sure my wife will get an earful tonight when she picks her up from school, but that's OK. It was her decision to do green today anyway.

Anyway, happy St. Patrick's day everyone.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,
The foresight to know where you are going,
And the insight to know when you have gone too far.