St Pat's

The Wearing of the Green is a political, religious and cultural statement in Ireland.
Here it is fun - a theme-day for bored cubicle inmates.

I wore it anyway. Green is my new black.
I got thinking about flags, and how many things they mean, and how all these people who know to wear green for this day never hear about William of Orange (even I didn't know for a long time that my family is/was Protestant - how secular is that!!?!) or think about what that white inbetween the two colours on the Irish flag really represents. For so long the best could be a cease-fire. Should one day peace and reconciliation be reached, do you think they might be able to let go of that divided flag and all the blood that's washed through it and take a new one?

Could we?
I think in the Australia I know, that would never happen. In the Australia I can image it would be embraced with a spirit of hope, courage, optimism and growth. The middle path - we''d make another box in another corner, as with the Union Jack. That's what we end up doing when all the ignorance and fear gets to whittle down good ideas, we box things up.

On another track entirely, I was in the greens (spring tones thank you, not the Robin of Sherwood look) with Pa at the hardware store, trying to make conversation with the man behind the counter who has a nice smile.
"Happy St Patrick's Day" I venture.
"Oh, is it?" He says.
"Yeah. If you want any snakes dealt with, today's your day." Trying to get some momentum.
"You like green anyway, don't you." Oh. I realise I always wear the same shirt on the weekend.
"Ha ha. Yeah. Don't really need an excuse to wear green huh." Crash and Burn. again.