Earth Day, deconstructed

A few days ago #1, who is always looking ahead, asked me to go over the calendar for the next few months. She likes to know what exciting events to look forward to. I told her about swimming lessons, #3's birthday, the end of school, our extended vacation in Utah, Brother Brig's wedding. She seemed unsatisfied.

"You forgot a holiday."

It's true. I hadn't mentioned Memorial Day. But what does she know of that?

"You forgot about celebrating Earth Day."

I roll my eyes. "We don't celebrate earth day."

#1 has become aware this year that all children don't celebrate the same holidays. She is used to being in the majority when it comes to birthdays, Christmas etc. So her face lit up in surprise when she thought for a moment that she might be the object of sensitivity in her class, the lone abstainer of Earth Day.

I imagined #1 in class the next day, asking to be excused from all the Earth Day activities. And why shouldn't she? Our family does not teach earth worship. We do not study the prophecies of Al Gore. We do not accept the selling of indulgences otherwise known as carbon offsets. We abhor the outward and overt displays of 'greenism' and we certainly do not measure our devotion to the earth by the size of our carbon footprint.

But what could I tell #1? There are many things I had hoped I would never have to tell her. Things that are just so self-evident that they would rarely need mentioning. Things like, we don't lie. We don't hurt people. We pray. We love. Imagine setting aside one day a year to celebrate honesty. Today's the day we're going to be honest with everyone! This garish recognition seems to cheapen the quiet mundane messages of daily living. As if to really love honesty you must wear your t-shirt, slap on a bumper sticker and shout from the roof tops how honest you are. Respecting and caring for the earth is one of those things I had hoped would never need a label. It would just be our way of life.

I'm afraid the 'green' band wagon is picking up so much speed that in a few years the zealots, however well intentioned, who started this thing will have moved onto the next bigger and better cause, and all of us who went along buying florescent light-bulbs and bragging about our 'greenness' will run out of steam. But the true earth lovers, the real respecters of God's creations will still be doing what they've always been doing, long before it was hip to be green: living a simple life, consuming little, wasting little.

Even though #1 brought home an abundance of handouts, fliers, worksheets and coloring pages celebrating Earth Day (oh! the irony!), the 'holiday' came and went in our house without notice. Just the way I like it.