terrshee's Diaryland Diary

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I Hate St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day. A perfectly lovely time for emmigrant Irish and Irish descendants to take a few moments and reflect on their cultural heritage, and a perfect opportunity for the American corporate mentality to overwhelm and degrade anything remotely sacred.

What should be an appreciation of a large contribution to the U.S. melting pot has turned into an occasion for drunkeness and tasteless marketing. Not that alcohol and the Irish are any strangers, but to create the pretense that one of the great national health problems (here and in Ireland) as a desirable condition strikes me as morally and ethically bankrupt. And unless it is my veggies, green is a color of food I just don't want on my plate or in my cup (except for green tea). Plastic shamrocks are sham and leprechauns really aren't benevolent spirits. Sending cards to mark the day when you haven't the remotest connection to Ireland is only putting money in the pockets of the greeting card business and confirming that we can be conned into believing you aren't a loving person unless you do.

I hate days like today. I hate Mothers Day and Fathers Day (either you honor 'em or you don't, one day a year isn't going to make any difference), Kids Day, Grandparents Day, Valentines Day, Secretaries Day (pardon, Administrative Assistants Day) and all the other "Hallmark" holildays that play upon our guilt or need to belong.

I wouldn't if there was a point, if there was still some vestige of genuine feeling left in these "celebrations." But it has all become quite the excuse for excess and empty gestures.

I'm really grumpy today. Too little sleep due to too much pseudophedrine. Spring and allergies are upon us. Whee.

7:47 a.m. - 2005-03-17
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