When my son TJ was young, it was stressed to him the importance of reading. He had daily “reading time,” yet it was not a chore for him. It appeared, at the time, he liked it. He was in a household of readers, and he saw us reading as well. It appears, now, he really liked it.
There are moments in a parent’s life, the first days of school, the first communions, graduations, weddings, and the like that are the mileposts of life. I have found the moments in between those mileposts are where life lives.
We were leaving Hersey, PA, and I asked my son, “What did you think of the Hersey factory?” He responded, “Dad, if Willy Wonka has taught me anything, you build a chocolate factory near the chocolate river.” I knew in that comedic and joyful moment; I had been his parent.
Don’t get me wrong, this whole PhD in Geochemistry at Columbia is nice. He really likes it, like his reading as a youth, but it ain’t a Wanka Bar with a golden ticket.
It does denote a new period in life. You wake up one day and your kid is teaching you. Well, he is applying aspects of fractal geometry in nature to his geochemistry research. The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit Mandlebrot is the suggested text he gave for my “reading time.” This is hardly a fair exchange for Harry Potter.
Clouds are not spheres. Fractals involve chance. Shapes in nature are statistical in both their regularities as well as their irregularities.
Those natural shapes involve scaling and their degree of irregularity and fragmentation is identical at all scales. The pictures in the book are really helpful in understanding the synthesis of mathematical and philosophical analysis.
In other words, think snowflakes (Chapter 2) and maybe skip Chapter 11, “Logic of Fractals in Statistical Lattice Physics.” It doesn’t hurt to sit next to Bob Samson for a Taco Tuesday either. He’s a scientist and plays the ponies like Grace McGarry did.
Just as optimal foraging theory, behavioral ecology that discusses the maximization of energy while animals forage for food, can be applied to archival research, I began to ponder how fractal geometry in nature is applicable to the Irish narrative.
Benoit did not include anthropology or history in his seminal work and Mandelbrot don’t sound Irish to me. He was, in fact, from a Lithuanian Jewish family that fled Warsaw for France before WWII. I pondered, none the less.
To be honest, the first few chapters my brain was pronouncing fractal more like fraggle and couldn’t get the theme to Fraggle Rock out of another part of my brain, “Dance your cares away, worries for another day. Let the music play, down in Fraggle Rock.”
Then I thought of the patterns of behavior and cultural nuances that are commonly shared amongst the Irish people. Those things we do and may not know we are doing them.
It was my Aunt Irene who shared with me that I laughed like my grandfather, John Francis. He passed away when I was five years old. It was TJ’s classmates that denoted the similarity in our laughs and mannerisms. Some are more regular and other more irregular, but fractals do involve chance.
Hibernian of the Year
It was Sarah O’Brien, the Hibernian of the Year, who thanked Bluestone President Bob Mullin at the Celebration of St. Brigid and St. Patrick. Before we made it back east, it was figured out they are cousins, Ann Mullin.
It got me thinking about William Joseph McGarry, who married Mamie O’Malley on 9/21/1921 and moved to West 65th. In our journey, we made a brief stop at Pride of Erin to sample one of the best Guinness pours in this town and to hang out with St. Joe’s folks, before VASJ. It was one of their companions that noted he reads this paper but doesn’t always feel like he fully grasps it, because he is not Irish.
“All those thems and yous are hard to follow.” There are cultural antecedents that can go unspoken by those who share a culture. The critique was of the cultural nuances and not the syllables; that’s a permutational precedent.
It is the immediate family relationships we know, the relationships of shared blood and a family name. Those stories are regular and irregular, but statistical, and hopefully regular is when everyone is amenable.
As our family relationships grow in number and in generations, we may lose track or grow apart. As we alter the scale, the fragmentation and irregularity is identical as our cousins are because by marriage or three times removed. We forget we laugh the same due to the silence of familial fragmentation, but cousins are cousins.
When we increase the scale from individual stories to a shared narrative, we can see the commonality of our Irish people and the Cleveland Irish. In that scale there is no river or side of town.
In that scale we appreciate that we might read this paper differently than others might. That we are the thems and yous. This united cultural nuance is easier to see this time of year.
Just this week, every time I saw the word superior or a combination of letters that would spell superior, they jumped out at me. The same was true off the number 18 or 1 and 8. It felt like the Da Vinci Code and I was Godfrey de Saint Omer.
I am not a Templar, however. I am Cleveland Irish. The McGarry’s are all Cleveland Irish, up and down the hill and three times removed. The Cleveland Irish know that on March 17th, the intersection of Superior Avenue and East 18th Street speaks to us.
It is where the best St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the country commences at 2:04pm this year. It is where we pray and honor our country. It is where Katie sings the Irish National Anthem in Gaelic, and we get goosebumps. It is where we march with bagpipes in the air and celebrate our commonality as Cleveland Irish.
Parade Honorees
Congratulations to this year’s Parade Honorees: Pat Murphy, Grand Marshall; Bluestone Hibernian Chaplain Father Francis Walsh; Outside Co-Chair, Bluestone Hibernian Dave McLaughlin; Inside Co-Chair, Deirfiúr of Charity Hibernian Pat Homan, Irish Mother of the Year; and Deirfiúr of Charity Hibernian Sarah O’Brien, Hibernian of the Year.
I would also like to thank all the delegates and directors of the United Irish Societies of Greater Cleveland. Your time, effort and commitment is truly amazing and appreciated. It is because of your work we can all laugh the same and together on that most special day. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
You can read more about all of the Honorees right here on iIrish.us.
Find this and Francis’s other Cleveland Irish columns and others from this month’s issue HERE!
This Just In: BorderLight Theatre Festival Announces Special Programming
This Just In: Cleveland Public Market Corporation Assumes Operation of West Side Market, Names Staff
Belfast Giants’ North American Links Captivate the Emerald Isle
Francis McGarry
*Francis McGarry holds undergraduate degrees from Indiana University in Anthropology, Education and History and a Masters in Social Science from the University of Chicago. He is the Executive Director of Bluestone Hibernian Charities and proprietor of McGarry Consulting. He is a past president of the Irish American Club East Side and the founder and past president of the Bluestone Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
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