Sometimes It IS That Easy Being Green

Everyone is a little bit Irish on St. Patrick's Day, enhanced by a bit of emerald adornment.

My green gel-bejeweled pistachio selection from Veniero's's, the old school Italian bakery blocks from my high school...

... set amidst my high school classmate's selections, capping an evening gathering to see a classmate in from out of town, our small clutch of different ethnicities, from different neighborhoods, brought together by a common public high school, the gateway to a better life.

I have a green costume necklace that I wear to jazz up some blah but functional beige work tops. It also comes out each St. Paddy's Day as a nod to the occasion. Growing up in New York, with its deep Irish roots, everyone is a little Irish here on St. Pat's.

By the same token, everyone is a little Jewish - we all know some Yiddish, just from osmosis, and we all eat bagels, because we grew up with them. And we're all a little Italian, from all the pizza. And all a little Chinese, from the takeout and dim sum. We're all a little Black from the hip hop. We're all a little everything. It's our birthright, or, rather, our childhoodright.

Also makes it awfully hard to truly hate a culture or a people, because you'd have to reject a little part of yourself and some of the people you grew up with.

[Rounded out to completion August 26, 2023.]