Green as a gourd

I was reading an article this week that offered tips on “going green”. Of course I know what the phrase is meant to imply, but if you are anywhere near as old as me the old meaning still pops in your mind. “green as a gourd”, a “green-broke” horse, a little “too green for the job” and “keep that fish away from the boat, he’s too green to land”. The old meaning being that something is not quite ready for its intended purpose. I often think that the phrase “going green” is still just a little bit too green to use.

If you get bored, Google “how many shades of green are there”. The answers will run from one million to infinite; so what they imply is to make your own guess. But for the sake of argument let’s just say there are too many to list. This could also be said for the current green movement…the green wave. I think we all know that green in this sense means environmentally conscious, but just how vague a term is this? How does one quantify green? Companies marketing anything from laundry detergent to car tires seem to have no problem advertising that they are “certified green” so maybe we should ask them.

So let’s make this easy and state that green is simply a state of mind; a thought pattern. If you choose to suffer with it and take the role of activist, as an American, this is your right. But this does not necessarily make your neighbor wrong. You have two recycling bins and he has one…are you greener? Maybe not; he could be using less packaging; he could be keeping things until they just won’t work anymore; he could be composting…he could be greener than you! I use this example to show that being green is not necessarily doing everything; it is simply doing what you can. Thinking green.

I’m not saying that a little guilt is a bad thing; it can be good if it motivates you. But don’t beat yourself up! A little here and a little there can make a big difference and be fun at the same time. Obsessions will fade, but changing one’s habits slowly can create a pattern that will last a lifetime. I like to think of myself as somewhere between laurel and fern, with emerald as my goal!