Irish Eyes
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the sunny, frigid, happy and drunken island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this Monday, the 17th day of March, 2014–St. Patrick’s Day! And a happy one to you and yours too, as the nation rallies around the green beer, green plastic hats, green rivers, green four leaf clovers, and the fact we are all Irish today, celebrating that patron saint’s efforts in driving the snakes out of Ireland…bottoms’ up! Although for the folks celebrating in South Boston today, the weather will be a bit on the chilly side, temperatures only in the low 20’s with plenty of sun, whereas in the nation’s Capitol, Washington D.C., another blast of snow left our beautiful politicians with yet another ‘day off’, keeping them sadly from doing what they do best–NOTHING. No soup (or beer) for you!
The mystery of Malaysian Air flight 370 is still gripping the nation and indeed the world, dominating the headlines as it is still unclear why the plane took that sharp left turn and then most likely south into the deep Indian Ocean far away from any land or radar detection. The pilots are now under the microscope and it seems even more foggy when looking at possible motives for such an act of sabotage. God be with them all.
Of course, God has nothing to do with the acts of one Vladamir Putin, who is poised to take Ukraine by force, with thousands upon thousands of troops now amassed on the border of that beleaguered state, now partially annexed by the former Soviet power house, as in the Crimean peninsula, now completely under Russian control. Over the week end, the ‘referendum’ on whether Crimea should be part of Ukraine or under the spell of the Kremlin was ‘decided’ with a 97 percent ‘da’ vote (although the question read, vote “yes” or “da”, not offering a “neeyet” option, gee, I hope I spelled that right Vlad ‘ole buddy!), going so far as to change the currency back to the Russian Ruble. To quote our pal Harrison Ford from the recent Oscars, “…(groan. gurgle. groan…) Buckle up folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
And finally today, I just wanted to say that Ireland is a magical place, for the Irish are magic. The reason why, of course, God invented whiskey was so that those Irish would not rule the world. Being 90 percent Irish myself, I must say that is accurate. I have been to my fair share of St. Patty’s Day ‘excursions’, not only here in Boston, but New York, Detroit, Denver, San Francisco, Orange County, California, Los Angeles, Portland, Maine and Chicago. And after drinking all of that alcohol, I am glad I can still SEA my computer screen and actually write something of value everyday, really, read my book “Taking Fog to Nantucket” and you will get the idea. When I bike, run, drive up to my favorite church anywhere on Cape Cod or the Islands, St. Andrews by the Sea, here in Hyannis Port, home of the great 35th President of these wonderful United States of America, Jack Kennedy and his beautiful wife, Jackie, not to mention the rest of that extraordinary family, I am grateful everyday just to be here. Life is a very precious and fragile thing, something not to be taken lightly, and my prayer goes out today to all those affected by this vanishing act in the south Pacific, as well as the people of Ukraine, whose lives should be free to be whatever they want those lives to be. Hey Vlad, ‘the war’s over, Wormer dropped the big one’…“…Over? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” “Germans?” “Forget it, he’s rolling…” “Well, it’s not over now, who’s with me?” (credit the great writing of Harold Ramis, God REST his soul, and the classic film, circa 1978, “National Lampoon’s Animal House”, starring the late great John Belushi and the beautiful Karen Allen). Vlad, the world is not with you, only your EGO is. Happy St. Patrick’s Day everybody and be safe out there amongst the English! PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
