St Padraig has long been associated with luck and yet his story is one of being sold into slavery in Ireland, fleeing to Britain where he nearly starved but was able to return to his family.  He heard the call to become “The Voice of the Irish” and traveled back to convert and lead the Irish people and act as a protector against their British subjugators.  He grew to such power and prominence with such a great following that he was under constant threat of religious and political martyrdom.

There is so much steeped in lore that, especially growing up as an Irish-American Catholic, you learned very young.  In returning to the story and understanding Irish history, these stories don’t tell stories of luck but faith, resilience, and bear with me on this one, insurance.

The Irish story is similar to St. Padraig, one of hardship, slavery, famine, subjugation, genocide, diaspora, war, and civil unrest and yet the Irish people, culture and county go on.  For those who visit Ireland, you learn the answer why really fast, social insurance.  The family unit is sacred, the pub is central to the community, and friendship is the most valuable currency.  If you leave that country without making a friend, maybe you are the issue because they invest heavily in building relationships with those around them.  This is what social scientists call, social insurance.  They have a community around them to bolster and support them.  This is similar to St. Padraig who was able to find and return to his family to recollect himself and then was able to be protected from martyrdom because of how much he invested in the Irish people.

But while social insurance can protect people it doesn’t propel them.  This is the faith, brought to life in their storytelling.  It’s what the Irish do best.  There is no magnificent architecture, sculptures, or paintings that people clamor to see in Ireland but songs and poetry flow from every corner of the city and their most beautiful building is dedicated to the library at Trinity.  The storytelling projects a hope and builds by working towards that hope and in that faith is born.

Together, when you combine social insurance and faith in a society, resilience is born.  The community protects and provides for each other and all work together for a common goal.  When obstacles arise the faith is not lost because there is a community to fall back on so the people can continue to move forward.  This isn’t unique, you see the same with the Jewish people and the African Americans, enslaved in the south. Unfortunately, we place a huge premium on resilience without valuing the prerequisites of faith and insurance.  

You hear business owners speak about how resilient they were to build their company and while, yes, this is true, it overlooks the building blocks, doing a disservice to those trying to emulate them to create a better life.  We need to put a premium on faith and insurance.

You have to find your story but we are here to be your community so that a bad day doesn’t turn into a bad life.