Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. ~ William Butler Yeats

Beware the Ides of March!

Long ago it has been established that I’m not normal, I’m also not Caesar, so I actually relish the Ides of March, it’s one of the most significant days of the year for me. You see March 15th was my POW’s birthday, he was my maternal grandfather and up until his death in 1969 we were incredibly close, I am the one grandchild that actually remembers him in some detail. Here he and I are doing shots in 1966.

In an interesting twist of fate, my first cousin is also born on March 15th, I’ve written about her before on the blog, I call her the Smoochy Monster. I explain the moniker and paint a picture of her in my post, Happiness is the Smoochy Monster, happy birthday Jej. Her and I spoke today and she always makes me laugh, today the biggest joke was our joint decision to start a new company, Butt, Boobs and Beyond. I have no idea what we would sell, but of course this is par for the course when your creating businesses with your cousin who has a traumatic brain injury. Regardless of the feasibility of the business plan, we had a great laugh talking about it.

Of course the reason the day is famous is that a long time ago Julius Caesar had a really bad March 15th. And this brings me back to the play Julius Caesar which was my introduction to Shakespeare by the greatest high school teacher of all time, Frank Sullivan. I will never forget the introductory stage direction to this play, there was great thunder and lightning. He would say this out loud, flash the lights in the room and kick a desk over. Of course, the first time he did it while I was in his class he kicked a girl’s desk and her belongings exploded across the classroom and he immediately felt terrible and dropped to his knees to help her pick everything up. This man introduced an uncultured street kid to Shakespeare and poetry, Greek and Roman architecture and even Gregorian Chant. We read amazing books in his class, almost never the standard high school books. We even read the Andromeda Strain. He had an incredible impact on my life and absolutely became the model for my own teaching style.

Finally, March 15th falls two days short of the most celebrated Irish Holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. For me, this hasn’t meant drunken revelry in a really long time. Instead it’s a day to make corned beef and cabbage, as well as remember my other grandfather, Grandpa Kane. Another significant impact on my life and my life’s attitude, he had his last street fight at 80, I told the story as his eulogy at his funeral and have published it as a poem, A Eulogy to Amuse the Penguins.

So today is significant, a day to touch base with family living and passed, a day to cook, to eat a good meal and have one of the four or five drinks I have each year, today calls for a Guinness. For me, March 15th is always a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane