Dear Kid,

When you were but a wee tot, you loved to color. You used the big, fat crayons that come 5 to a box. Then you graduated to big-kid crayons (Auntie M gave you a set of crayons in the shape of Winnie-the-Pooh characters). Eventually you got the Big Box of Crayola (woo hoo!) and at some point you made the move to colored pencils.

Art abounded.

Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso

Early on you weren’t held in by conventional rules of what color should go where–which matched your ability make the lines look like something you’d actually seen. At some point your drawings became more recognizable and your color placement more closely resembled Mother Nature’s (song cue).

There is a rumor going around that spring is due to show up sometime soon. Certainly, St. Patrick’s Day is next week. And I threw out some questionable sliced turkey this morning. All of which got me thinking about the color green.

In case you weren’t aware, there is an entire body of research (and by “entire body” I mean more words than I’m going to include here) about color and what different colors mean.

Green is the color of nature. Green has great healing power and suggests stability and endurance. It is the color of renewal and rebirth.

It is the color of envy and possessiveness and prosperity and money. It is the color of mold and Oscar the Grouch.

It’s not easy being green (song cue).

Green is the color of balance and harmony, although by the end of St Patrick’s Day celebrations not everyone has balance or harmony.

Green is the color of hope, love of family, friends, pets, and home. It is generous and friendly.

It is one of the colors of more than one Important Institution of Higher Learning.

Happy Pre-St Patrick’s Day.

Love, Mom