Given my background, there’s an expectation on behalf of acquaintances that I enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. Well, actually, I hate it.
It has not always been so. When I was little, I took particular pride in my name every time March 17 rolled around. Attending Notre Dame, ironically, is part of what’s ruined it for me. True, my years at ND delivered some of the best friends I know, not to mention a rigorous undergraduate education. I also enjoyed the unique atmosphere of spirituality, service and tradition.
But one thing that has haunted me since graduating ten years ago is what I remember as the repressed-macho-stoic-negative-misogynist-alcoholic vibe of the place. Gender relations were SO FUCKED UP. I now attribue half of the issues to the campus’s “Irishness” and the other half to its “Catholicness.” And like children in a dysfunctional family, many of us (my chick friends at least) internalized it, blaming the problems on ourselves.
As the years passed after graduation and as I forged a life for myself outside of that sheltered culture, I’ve found a separate peace. I am much happier here in this new, more tolerant, more open, more healthy world. But on St. Pat’s, that Zen state inevitably comes crashing down when my city is overrun with loud, drunk, barfing out-of-towners who claim to be celebrating “Irish heritage.”
PS: I also hate corned beef and hash. As a kid I was always forced to eat it on St. Pat.’s, and it was always a showdown.
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Love, love, LOVE the illustration. Do you do can labels?
You really crossed the line with the personal attack on me. Do you think its easy being dogfood’s closest human cousin? At least my MySpace friends accept me for me.
It’s never too late to apologize,
CBH
hilarious! i meant to write corned beef and cabbage.
but — i’m sorry, CBH — i’m not fond of you either! however i know a mini honchini in california who’ll be your BFF, no questions asked.
Well, I still don’t understand why that means I can’t kiss you.
But apart from that… Notre Dame is clearly the apotheosis of fucked-up Irish Catholicness, but as a veteran of three different Catholic colleges, I’d like to offer you a hearty YEAH! NO SHIT!
And I hate corned beef and cabbage, too. Fortunately, so did my mom, so we weren’t subjected to it growing up.
oh, you’re totally right. kiss me, kate.
it is a YEAH! NO SHIT! thing, isn’t it?
for me the revelation came late in life and put me at odds with the world i grew up in and a lot of people i love — so many of them are still RAH RAH Irish and RAH RAH Catholicism and RAH RAH Notre Dame. Doesn’t make me love them any less, but it does make me feel a little alien sometimes.
and mike, i totally can’t claim credit on the illustration. i stole it from lela lee (http://www.angrylittlegirls.com/). my only contribution was making the angry girl blonde.
Seeing Corned Beef Hash’s page was the first time I have been tempted to get more deeply involved with myspace. CBH, in a world filled with simpleton food that is easy to describe and categorize, you remain strange, mixed up, enigmatic and chunky. Both vegetable and meat, you color outside the lines of the food pyramid. God bless you and your crusade to throw off the shackles of food conformity. Rousseau said man is born free but everywhere is in chains. Not you, CBH, born free you were and free you remain.
I hate corned beef & cabbage. I had my first beer on St. Paddy’s day in 1986 and I made quite a ‘cabbage stew’ on the morning of 3/18.
npNow this is funny. As your brother, I perpetuate the macho status quo by insisting (requesting nicely) a traditional Irish meal on the feast day of St. Patrick, and attend mass every Sunday. I guess I fall into the “don’t love them any less” category.
bro bri, i certainly don’t love you any less for going to mass and eating nasty food. in fact i couldn’t possibly love you more than i already do. you and kev have made me keep the faith on dudes in general. you’ve got all the best qualities of the “repressed macho jerks from college” (fun, wits, strength) but you’re also sensitive, loving, open. you’ve set the bar very high — i’m so lucky to be your sister!