Live Life

One of my favorite holidays is coming up this Saturday, St. Patrick's Day. I love being part Irish. I remember asking writer/sociologist/priest Andrew Greeley what do you call a person who is a mixture like I am of Irish, Scottish, Cherokee, Amish and English and he replied "Irish." Sounds good to me.

I was reading an article in Woman's World magazine about how the Irish in a study of 11 industrialized nation had the lowest rate of depression. Not bad for a people known for their "moody" personalities. There are several factors that would explain this lack of serious depression though.

We Irish are a very vocal people. We like to talk things out. We don't believe in bottling up our emotions. We will let you know how we feel, loudly and long if necessary. If we are happy you will know it. If we aren't boy will you know it. We are exuberant about our feelings. We love to debate and argue. We have no problems trying to persuade people to see our point of view. Shyness is not an Irish characteristic.

We love music and dance. Music is a very big part of my life. A friend is finally going to get around to getting my guitar back to me after having it for several years. I'm looking forward to relearning how to play. I frequently have music going in the background as I write or do art. It helps to concentrate my attention and frees up my imagination.

Irish love to laugh and often the jokes are about ourselves. One of my favorite quotes is from the great Irish writer Oscar Wilde who said, "Don't take life too seriously. You aren't getting out of it alive." I have an off the wall sense of humor that tends to go towards Monty Python or the late great Dave Allen. There is a lot of laughter in life if you are willing to look for it.

In Chicago they have a huge St. Patrick's Day parade every year and they dye the river green. Hey if you are going to celebrate do it right. This picture is called Leprechaun Humor although I doubt that his companions are as amused as he is.

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