Green is Good

I have always considered green to be the color of God. I’m not talking about some particular vision of God, but my sense of the divine All That Is. It seems to me, like Darwin said about beetles, that God really must favor green. Science calls it chlorophyll but whatever the biological dynamics involved the result is great swathes of green, immense canopies of green, a blue-green incandescence of sea, and a planet like a great blue-green marble with soft swirling swatches of white.

I think that might be why I love stones like chrysacolla or the wonderful mix of malachite and lapis lazuli. I have collected a particularly lovely couple of pieces of turquoise, probably dyed, that are gorgeous grass green. Grass green that reminds me of Northern California in the spring when the winter rains have soaked the soil and the spring sun awakens new life. It’s a truly amazing green that jumps to your eyes with electric vitality. Or that soft emerald carpet of Irish green grass in Eire that is the result of a wet mild climate. Or that tired eluvial green of dry peaks and ridges, or the dark green of pine, or the beautiful alluvial green of rivers and valleys. Think of the Nile with the banks rich with life, reeds and papyrus. I would love to see the green of a tropical rainforest for myself. That’s one green I have never seen in person.

Green is the color of life. I think of that every time I see a little seed burst forth from the dark loamy earth, just two delicate cotyledons breaking free on their tender stem. Green is the color of many of my favorite foods.

Green is good.

Thoughts on Old Office Chairs

Walking to work this morning I noticed a couple office chairs parked up on the curb. I was contemplating nabbing one or two (great for the studio!) but I was going the wrong direction and had no place to stash them all day. I gazed longingly at the chairs as I reluctantly moved past without snatching. I was wondering what was wrong with them they needed to be thrown out. The answer was blindingly obvious: the fabric had worn under the knees and was now showing off the foam padding. This is the normal place for such chairs to wear and in every other way they looked entirely serviceable.

It occurred to me that nothing in the world would be easier than for the manufacturer to add some reinforcement to that part of the seat. Then, just as quickly, it occurred to me that no modern manufacturer would do that. Why not? Because they want stuff to wear out and be thrown away so you’ll buy a new one. I would bet you good money that they even research the exact length of time it’s acceptable to the consumer that a product wears out within so that they still buy the manufacturer’s crappy-built-to-be-redundant-quickly products.

Remember when ever town had a machine shop where you could take things like the toaster for repair? Can you even imagine doing so today? And of course there were cobblers. I loved the cobblers. You didn’t just throw away your shoes when you got a hole in the heel – you had them repaired! These days it just costs more to have something repaired than the thing is worth… BECAUSE they are made to be cheap and disposable. We, as consumers, are programmed to prefer the low price points and assume we’re getting better value and stretching our dollar. But once you bought something ONCE in your life, not every three years or less. Count up the amount of times you had to fork out for a toaster, total up the cost. Bet you one in good materials guaranteed to last would have cost you less in the long run.

I won’t even go into the cost to the environment and landfill we are paying so that we can buy cheap disposable goods.

Anyone reading this I’m probably preaching to the choir – particularly to those who are proponents of HANDMADE excellence like all my Etsy friends, but I just want to add that I’m as guilty as everyone else. I’m trying to change my ways and buy good quality stuff that will last and last, even if I have to start with the small ticket items and do without for other things. It’s not easy being green as beloved Kermit told us so many years ago (how psychic was that?).