St. Patrick's Day comes along this Wednesday, and if I have the opportunity, I will wear some green, chew on some corned beef and cabbage, knock back some Jamison and wash it all down with a hearty stout beer. Yeah, I've got some Irish blood in me, but just as important, I like to eat hearty meals and drink some quality alcohol.

The older I get, the less I ponder about where I came from. There's my parents, grandparents, grand uncles and aunts, and super duper grand folks so far back that I can't fathom how they ever lived an entire life. My last living grandmother is a master genealogist. She can trace my mother's side of the family back to the old northern European days. Germans, French, English, and yes, they even had an Irish shield. She has pictures and photo copies of men and women looking stoically back into the old timey poof cameras. Some bear some resemblance to me, some don't.

On my father's side, it's not so precise but just as telling. Back in the late eighteenth century, old Joseph Jungle made it to North Carolina, and over the next two centuries, the Jungles stumbled across the south, from Georgia to Oklahoma to New Mexico. I'm the product of pure Southern White Trash, which of course means not all the Jungles are white. Just yesterday, I saw a black Jungle guy playing basketball for a team in the midwest. Us Jungles are everywhere.

So there it is, Northern Europeans and Southern White Trash unite to make little Chris. I'm not exactly bred from the ilk of kings and queens, but I get by just fine. I don't claim to be much of any specific heritage. No strange overwhelming satisfaction comes over me when the English or Irish win a football game in the World Cup. As far as I'm concerned, I'm an American and a New Mexican on top of that. Not exactly the pride of any genealogy chart, but not really a blemish either.

I saw a play last night called "Over the River & Through the Woods." The play should have been called "Tengo Famiglia." It's about a single adult man (played by a buddy of mine) choosing to take a promotion far away and leave both sets of his Italian grandparents. As the play says, Tengo Famiglia translates to "I support a family," but it means much more in Italian. It means I am a man, I take care of my wife, I take care of my kids, I provide. The grandparents can't understand the modern ways of their grandson, and he gets frustrated with their old way of doing things. He ultimately leaves to discover his grandparents instilled their values, and he applies those values to the new world in ways they could never understand. Tengo Famiglia survives in a new form. That's what heritage is.

There are two things that happen with heritage: values and the instinct. I can honestly say I think far too much for my own good (damn you, German heritage), and I take too much pride in my laziness (damn you, White Trash heritage). I like grilling meat and drinking beer, I like to see projects through once I start them, I become obsessed and meticulous about minor details, and I like to shut the world out in the midst of the crowd. All these attributes came from somewhere. Was it the Irish, or the French, or the Okies?

When it really comes down to it, I don't really care. It's a minor miracle that my parents ever met, even more amazing that they decided to commit their lives to each other, and a proclaimed sign from God that they decided to breed and raise a third child like me. The same can probably said for most people. Once I get past my grandparents, I don't care to put much stock in where my old relatives used to live. I've had to make my own way for years now, and being a Jungle doesn't give me any special privileges, nor does it carry a burden. I have to continually prove myself in this world, and that's the way it should be for everyone no matter where we come from.

So go ahead and toast the Irish this Wednesday. There's nothing wrong with a little corned beef, potatoes and cabbage. Of course on Cinco de Mayo, I'll be eating enchiladas and drinking tequila and Dos Equis. I'm not sure how much Mexican blood I have in me, but just as important, I like to eat hearty meals and drink some quality alcohol.

Chris Jungle is very distantly related to you.