St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. A day when rivers flow green and people around the world hoist a glass of beer or a plate of corned beef and cabbage in honor of the Irish icon and all things Irish.

Briefly, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity’s most widely known figures. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are the result of hundreds of years of storytelling and their veracity is debatable.

Regardless of the true story, his place in history as the man who banished the snakes from the Emerald Isle is cemented. Perhaps what we need today is a modern-day version, someone to banish the snakes from Wall Street and Capitol Hill. Someone to lift us from our downward-spiraling economic recession.

So perhaps St. Patrick’s Day can become a turning point this year. Much as the Irish immigrants of the mid-19th century used the vision of a better life in the United States to escape the pains of the great potato famine, we must find a metaphor to lift us from this group depression our country, and perhaps the world have fallen into. Why not make it St. Patrick, or some modern-day version of his story and the Irish struggles of a century and a half ago?

As health columnist and counselor Dario Lussardi writes on page seven, we need to collectively overcome the FUD factor. We need some good news mixed in with the daily fear, uncertainty, and doubt that is constantly fed to us by the national media. The media needs to add some good news to the daily drone of lower stock prices, rising unemployment numbers, and the like. We need to be uplifted as well.

Perhaps, in the myths and legends that have evolved from a man who lived almost 1,600 years ago, our modern world can find the way out of the darkness that seems to be enveloping us. At the very least, on March 17, we can all wear some green, feel a part of the Irish heritage, and find something to smile about for a day. We all need it right about now.