At some level, it’s easier to be a Lenten person than an Easter person. But I’m (still) working at it.
But even if you’re not a Christian, I have some wisdom for you. Specifically, it’s from a very small (4″ X 3.25″) book I got for my last birthday called “Wisdom from It’s Not Easy Being Green and Other Things to Consider” by Jim Henson, the Muppets and Friends.
“I think there are lots of ways of leading very good lives and growing spiritually. This process of growth goes on whether we believe in it or not.” -Jim
When I give out my name on the phone, I usually spell out R-O-G-E-R and say, “Green, like the color”. As often as not, the reply is, “Is that with an E?” I thought, since my last name is Green (not Greene), that I’d reflect on the color green. Of course, no analysis is more clear than the late Joe Raposo’s meditation, Bein’ green.
It’s not that easy bein’ green Green is a secondary color, comprised of blue and yellow
Having to spend each day The color of the leaves JEOPARDY! clue, 5 Feb 09 in Basic Science: “The name of this green pigment found in plants is partly from the Greek for ‘green’
When I think it could be nicer Bein’ red or yellow or gold Or something much more colorful like that Of course, autumn leaves ARE those colors; they are also dying.
It’s not easy bein’ green One of the most popular children’s songs in MY neighborhood was “Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts”; heard THAT a lot. It seems you blend in With so many other ordinary things
Of course, kids tease, as they do. the one name I was called the most, which actually didn’t much bother me, is Mr. Green Jeans, the sidekick on the long-running, CBS-TV weekday morning show, Captain Kangaroo. He was played by the late Hugh “Lumpy” Brannum.
And people tend to pass you over One of the definitions of green is inexperienced, like a greenhorn rookie ‘Cause you’re not standing out Like flashy sparkles in the water Or stars in the sky Though in fact, many animals either are green or can turn green as protection from predators, using it as camouflage.
But green’s the color of spring (Will spring ever arrive?)
and friendly like The persistent Sam I Am in Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss’ birthday was Monday)
And green can be big like an ocean Or important like a mountain Green means go. And speaking of which, Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963) developed several commercial products, many of which are still in use today. Morgan is probably best known for inventing the gas mask and the traffic light.
Or tall like a tree I must admit unwarranted joy when the conversation comes around to going green, meaning being environmental.
When green is all there is to be
When i was in college, I’d occasionally hear the punchline to the movie Soylent Green,, starring Charlton Heston, directed at me, long before I got around actually seeing the film; talk about a spoiler!
It could make you wonder why But why wonder, why wonder? About the only time I ever read either Green Lantern or Green Arrow comic books is when they appeared together in that Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams series
I am green and it’ll do fine It’s beautiful and I think it’s what I want to be
The song has been performed by a number of folks including Frank Sinatra, and that guy born on the Emerald Isle, Van Morrison. still the best version starts off like this from the star of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show:
Greetings, Kermit the Frog here And today I’d like to tell you a little bit About the color green Do you know what’s green? Well I am for one thing You see frogs are green, and I’m a frog And that means I’m green, you see
Once upon a time, probably in the early 1990s, I made a mixed tape of songs that were rooted in the Bible. These were some of them, mostly from the Old Testament. I used Byrds rather than Collins and Collins rather than Cohen, but the rest were the same. Yes, the McFerrin video is weird; just listen to the music.
As I was growing up, I spent a great deal of time at my grandma’s house, as she lived just a half dozen blocks from my house in Binghamton, NY and as close to my elementary school as my own house, so I’d often have lunch there. She had a coal stove and one my jobs was to to go down to the basement and shovel up a couple pails of coal to keep the fires burning.
After my grandmother moved south, and I stayed in her house in the winter of 1975, I realized how inept I was at keeping the fires going on my own. Obviously, I was doing something wrong, and the flames went out. So it’s February, it’s bitterly cold, I have a mountain of covers on and I’m using a space heater. A quilt comes off the bed and catches fire. Fortunately something woke me up, perhaps the acrid smell, but possibly some psychic connection to my mother who SWEARS she woke up in Charlotte, NC at that very time to warn me; I don’t dismiss it out of hand. When I was about nine, there was a massive fire on my grandma’s one-block street, Maple Street. An apartment complex called the Rogers Block, four wooden structures as I recall, all caught fire and were utterly destroyed. I don’t believe anyone was hurt, but naturally, many lives were disrupted. It took a while for the area to be razed, and for months, I’d walk by from across the street and smell that very distinct post-fire odor. Every year, at Midwinter’s, there’s a bonfire where one can throw pieces of paper representing things to get rid of from the previous year, although one year, we threw in the chair of one of our founding members of the tribe, who had died the year before. Indeed, the fire that represents me on this blog comes from a photo of a Midwinter’s wax magick burst. Totally coincidentally, this week, my daughter had me read a book called A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, which is about a family who lost everything in a fire, got some stuff from their neighbors, but who were saving up for a nice plush chair to put into the new apartment. It’s a Caldecott winner, and I’d recommend it. My sister lives in southern California, not in a traditionally fire-prone area, yet a couple years ago, she could see the flames in her neighborhood. She was fortunately spared, but many were not. The photo above I believe she took.
I recall that there was this young woman on JEOPARDY! in the college tournament a few years back who had experienced a fire and was pleased that she was able to start over; Alex Trebek looked at her as though she were crazy, but at some level, I understood her point. The dichotomy about fire fascinates me: useful tool, destructive force. Even theologically, that comes up, the notion of hellfire
vs. the idea of being “on fire for the Lord”. Today is Ash Wednesday and it is with the remnants of fire with which some Christians will be marked.
Anyway, here’s one of my favorite fire songs, by the OHIO PLAYERS:
My friend, the Hoffinator, wrote: “The headline I read included the phrase, ‘the thaumaturgic abilities of professors…’ I was curious, so I looked it up. Thaumaturgy is the performance of miracles. See if you can work it into a conversation…..” Thus: thaumaturgy [THAW-muh-tuhr-jee]-noun The performance of miracles or magi. thaumaturgic [thaw-muh-TUR-jik]–adjective 1. pertaining to a thaumaturge or to thaumaturgy. 2. having the powers of a thaumaturge. thaumaturge [THAW-muh-turj]–noun a worker of wonders or miracles; magician. Also, thaumaturgist. Interesting word. But it got me thinking that if pop songs replaced the word magic and its variants with thaumaturgy and ITS variants, it would make for some terrible scansion:
*** Emotionally intelligent signage *** The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community. -Ann Strong, Minneapolis Tribune, 1895 *** DIY Dryer Sheets Mix one part liquid softener to four parts water and place in an old spray bottle. Spray some on a dedicated washcloth and toss in the dryer along with the clothes. One bottle of liquid fabric softener lasts a very long time. Here’s the website that has a lot of other good tips. *** Mark Evanier linked to the opening of a mid-1960s TV show called Branded, starring Chuck Connors (“The Rifleman”). My sisters and I used to play “Branded”. We’d sing the theme together and take turns being the commander breaking the “sword” over our knees. (Usually it was a stick, but we also used to rip this piece of thin cardboard that used to be on the hangers when they came back from the dry cleaners.) And yes, I still know the song by heart. *** Cool pics of the universe
