Go Green
July 12, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The topic of this month’s b5media Science & Health channel theme day is “go green” and I’ve been going back and forth in my thoughts thinking “go green—do something environmental” and “go green, well, Charlie has that apple green t-shirt that exactly matches one that Jim has, and there’s that golf jacket that Jim wears in the spring and that Charlie has added to the pile on the foot of his bed—-and the beat-up lime green lizard backpack that was Charlie’s a few years ago and that Jim found in a closet and, since the strap on his briefcase was broken, decided to use as his backpack…..like Charlie, like Dad……”
Then there’s “green guacamole,” which Charlie is very fond of, and a “green drink” (this would be a regular Sprite vs. a diet Sprite, a “clear drink”). (Guess what diet Coke is, not that Charlie likes it?) And, lest I forget, “green car,” which is the 1998 Subaru stationwagon that began its life in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and faithfully drove me through the flooded lanes of Hwy 78 on Wednesday evening: One of those days when it took me 3 times as long to get home as usual (seeing some green would have been nice; the sky was 100% gray all the way).
Yes, I guess this post has “gone green” not in regard to the environment (I guess you could say I refer to the environment more than a little here on Autism Vox, in reference to numerous theories of autism causation) but in more of a cultural sense, in terms of the “meaning of green” to Charlie and so to me: “It’s not easy being green“—as in looking and being different from everyone around you—to quote the literally green Kermit the Frog. Jim notes some of the other “meanings of green” in a cultural and specifically in an Irish sense in a recent review of a book on Irish America (email me if you’d like to read his review, which contains a reference to a certain “Irish/Chinese-American” boy who “emerges from the beach with a tan, of all things”).
As to why that Irish/Chinese-American boy is so green in this photo, taken last month as we took a boat from the West Side of Manhattan back to Hoboken, I guess it was the lights and the meagre photo-taking powers of my cell phone camera—-maybe you can be green (even in a blue world) and still get to eat your guacamole too.
We’ve been “green” for some time now–Tobey is obsessed with the color. He’s been wearing the same type of green Hanes t-shirt from Wal-Mart for the past 4 years. I’ve just gotten to the point where I buy 6 each year when school starts so that there’s always a green shirt available in the mornings–no meltdown. And, I always tell family not to buy Tobey shirts–he won’t wear them and there’s no point.
Cute story: About March, Tobey’s teacher asked his first grade class to color their shamrocks green. Nobody could find a green crayon in their boxes. All 17 green crayons were in Tobey’s box,–he’d been going through everyone’s boxes stealing their green crayons when nobody was looking. [Smiling at the memory]
/about 15 green t-shirts in the dryer right now…
Goodmorning Kristina and Rochelle,
I loved reading this post. Everbody needs to let their green flag show in this blue world!
Rochelle, the big Texas birthday party is coming up, right? Maybe a Go Green theme?
At our house we actually use a lot of alternative cleaners (safer for our own little micro-environment) and I have never felt safe breathing in the cleaning supplies with harsh odours. We recently discovered that white vinagar actually works to get rid of weeds in a pebble drive – better to have the outdoors smell like a GREEN salad than chemicals!
Well we’re certainly on the same page today! but yours is more balanced than mine.
Cheers
Now that would be something—-having the front lawn smelling like a side salad!
For the record (ah, what was I thinking?) Charlie is wearing his black “got rice” shirt today. And another of his favorites, I am starting to think: orange shorts.
C. loves green. If I get 3 of anything, the green one is hers.
And she’s the only one I’m going out of my way to get green shirts for.
The boys are content with blue and red, so it works out.
Well, Chinese and Irish folk are famous for being smart. Irish are also famous for being lovable troublemakers.
Looks like you have a smart lovable troublemaker there, Ma’am!
Ah, I meant to write “loveable.”