Happy St. Paddy's Day 2009

My father was a co-author on a book about lasers. I will always remember a drawing he did to show the difference between coherent and incoherent light. The coherent light showed a bunch of stick figures marching in the St. Paddy’s day parade before the bars opened in nice straight lines. Incoherent light are a bunch of stick figures meandering around aimlessly in the St. Paddy day parade after the bars opened. I don’t think that is how it went into the final book but that is how I remember the difference between coherent and incoherent light for the rest of my life.

I am proud of my Irish heritage. I am equally proud of my Polish heritage. I am also proud that in America it is possible for someone to have more than one heritage. I think of my ancestors and what they did to get to this country so that I could be here now and it is rather amazing.

In school I learned at an early age that you wore green on St. Paddy’s day or you got pinched. So I made it a point to wear green until High School and then I avoided wearing green on St. Paddy’s day with the reasoning that I was ½ Irish therefore I didn’t need to wear green. This morning I dressed Caroline in a green shirt and explained what it was for. She sighed and agreed to wear the shirt to avoid the pinch.

I am grateful that I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at a local Irish Pub. Éirinn go Brách.