It’s St. Patrick’s day again! How wonderful that stories we learn growing up can change and inform us as we grow older. The Irish myth about St. Patrick, ‘ridding Ireland of all the snakes’ is a wonderful place to start this discussion.

We humans have taken over most of the world by eliminating any other creatures who threaten us or our expansion. It’s ‘fear’ that drives us to completely wipe out other living species, rather than finding ways to share space with them. It’s our mostly male ‘binary ways’ of coping with an ‘all-or-nothing’ dilemma that we face. There’s too much pressure to have to choose, we don’t know what else to do, so we pick one simple answer and hang onto it, no matter what.

Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was a real person who lived in the 5th century. He came to Ireland to proselytize for Christianity. One of the biggest myths about his ‘story’, is that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland and into the sea. The fact is that Ireland never had any snakes for St. Patrick to banish! The event that prevented snakes from living in Ireland, was actually the Ice Age that ended 10,000 years ago. When kids hear this myth, they ask, “Did he have to get rid of ALL the snakes?”

I’ve learned that we can let go of our binary mandates, and not have to throw out the whole delicious story. We can hold onto parts of old stories like this. We can appreciate and celebrate with our community the stories we grew up with in our lives. And, … we can alter some of the untrue details in our stories, and add some of the important nuances we’ve learned from living through life’s hard lessons.

When we’re not afraid, if we learn how to behave in less violent, more caring ways than what we learned from listening to old stories, then, … when we are afraid, we will know some healthier, more effective ways to proceed. As the song says, “we can crush all the spiders with books, y’know, but killing them’s kind of a crime, ‘cause all life is sacred!”

WAS ST PAT SCARED?

St. Pat drove the snakes out of Ireland A7-D-A-D

Tho’ snakes are God’s creatures too G-D

And they probably scared St Patrick a bit G-D

And they might even frighten you E-A

But getting rid of all the snakes D-A-D

Won’t make your fear go away G-Bm

It puts it off for awhile G-D

But your fear will come back some day, some daaaay A-Bm-G

Your fear will come back some day D-A-D-A7

So you go somewhere else and get frightened

Maybe by spiders this time

You can crush all the spiders with books, y’know

But killing them’s kind of a crime.

Cause all life is sacred

In my heart, I know it’s true

These animals just are trying their best

T’stay alive like we do, we dooo

To stay alive like we do.

When you kill the things you’re scared of

You loose what you need to explore

To learn t’grow and be stronger

To stop being scared like before

So if you hate spiders and snakes

There’s one thing that is clear

If you kill ‘em or crush ‘em or chase ‘em away

You never get rid of your fear, oh noooo!

No, you never get rid of your fear.

Those creatures are here for a reason

God made ‘em and He’s no fool

We can’t avoid Life’s lessons

We learn that at home and in school.

So don’t copy old St Patrick

Who never conquered his fear

God didn’t make this world for just us

People living here, my dear, noooo!

It’s for all the creatures here!

St Patrick just felt frightened of D-A-D

What us other creatures do G-Bm

So give us a break! Don’t be frightened of me G-D

And I won’t be frightened of you, of youuu, nooo! A-Bm-G

Give us a break! Don’t be frightened of me G-D

And I won’t be frightened of you! A-A7-D

Written by Peter Alsop, ©Copyright 2007, Moose School Music (BMI)

‘OnGrow It At Home’ - www.peteralsop.com

That story about Eve and the Serpent and the Apple is a delicious allegory with lots of hidden messages, but the reality is, … ‘If we don’t take care of our ‘Garden of Eden’, we won’t get to stay!’

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