Holiday Green

There is a great deal of talk these days about the color green. We are "going it, being it, and in desperate need of it" especially during this holiday season when there is a shortage of it. Our society is quite concerned with safeguarding our natural (green) resources in order to ensure that we don't come up short or destroy the beauty this planet holds.  Hence, we've become devotedly green, and we continue to find new and inventive ways to become even greener!

Here's my quandary though. I am deeply devoted to being green. I absolutely believe that it is the way to go. But what puzzles me is our continuous squandering of our most precious, natural resources...our children.

Our kids are about as "natural a resource" as we can get, however, many of the examples we have shown them (especially over the last few months) have been extremely poor and certainly nothing worth emulating. Where is the role model material that we need to show our children in order to give them even the slightest of chances of making the world a better place as each new generation comes to pass? And why is it that we spend so much of our time "blowing the trumpet" when tragedy strikes the unfortunate and so little time when something remarkable happens.  The latter seems to pass through our lives in a day; the former blinds us for weeks on end.  Quite sad, if you as me.  They say in the news industry that if it bleeds, it leads.  Well, too much negativity in this vain will bleed our children and world to death.

My view is, if we really want to begin to go green, we should begin to set the example of how to balance all of the "greens" effectively. We should concentrate on setting a positive example and not allow our "green eyed monster" to get the better of us for the love of an extra few cents in which to squander. Nor should we reach into our pockets in search of a dollar to give to the guy ringing the bell on the freezing cold street corner only to pull back in second thought as the notion that we may have to skip that afternoon cup of coffee comes to mind. When comparing a child's disappointment or the Salvation Army's devastation when arriving to a shelter with too few gifts to give after having repeatedly pled for help from the public to the added stress you will need to endure as a result of having to brew your own cup of coffee for one afternoon in exchange for donating those few pennies,  I can't imagine the choice could be any more clear.

If we truly care about being green, we should behave that way all of the time but especially during tough economic seasons when being green becomes more difficult but certainly just as important to do. Problems don't go away just because green does. In fact, they multiply. So if you want to embrace the holidays and New Year genuinely committed to going green, donate some green between now and then to a cause that will ensure our most precious resources, our children, remain fully intact and eager to meet the new day with joy, optimism, health, hope, and excitement. Let's treat them as the precious resources they truly are, otherwise, we won't have to worry about the welfare of any other natural green resource as we won't be needing them anyway. Nor will we be completely absorbed in being green as, quite frankly, black will be all that is left to see in this world.

Happy Holidays!  Go Green!


Laura J. Wellington is the CEO of both The Giddy Gander Company and The Wumbler Patch and the creator of The Wumblers brand, a brand that teaches children their social, global, environmental, and humanitarian responsibility to human kind and this world.  You can contact her at lauraw@giddygander.com.