It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m wearing green (along with my Wool& Camellia dress), while also feeling like a hypocrite.
In the U.S., St. Paddy’s Day seems to me to be mostly a drinking holiday. Folks don green and Leprechaun attire to go out and drink green beer and listen to Irish folk songs one day a year.
The story I was taught as a kid was that “St. Patrick saved Ireland from the snakes.” Of course, not knowing … well … anything, I thought that was a good thing. In hindsight:
- Snakes are incredibly important to ecosystems, and ones native to areas should not be mindlessly killed or driven out.
- And “driving out the snakes” was an outright lie. “Snakes” were symbolic of non-Christians. And the story of St. Patrick is that he saved Ireland, when it is more accurate to say he stole or erased the Pagan culture from the people of Ireland by absorbing their stories into Christianity. Good times. Maybe I do need a beer after that realization!
I’m not sure comparing that to the war in Ukraine is a good or direct one, but it sure is on my mind today.
I was thinking last night about how frivolous it seems/is to do a #100daydresschallenge and be blogging about it while the other craziness is going on in the world. I came to a couple of conclusions:
- We literally can’t focus on the serious stuff 24/7. At least not without burning out quickly and completely. This dress challenge brings me joy right now. It’s also encouraging me to take pictures and blog again, which takes me to…
- Life happens along the way, so while wearing the dress I’ll also blog about whatever else is on my mind that day. Win-win!!
So below are some other things that bring me joy, to help balance the challenging emotions around imperialism and colonialism.
me some snuggles. My buzzed
head was cold, so scarf up!
this week. I puttered around the
yard (in my dress) picking up the
downed sticks. Soon I’ll get a
good bonfire going.
rather dashing brown anole on
my grill. They are everywhere in
St. Pete, and an invasive species,
but I still like watching them.
Day 3 with the dress is fine. Easy to just have something to wear first thing in the morning. Not stinky, and no accumulated deodorant residue in the arm pits. It’s even doing pretty good with cat hair. Can’t say I don’t have any on me, but the dress is a bit smooth and not super-retaining it.