Years ago, I read books by Don Aslett, a man who grew a college cleaning job into a huge cleaning supply industry
Some choices from Home Depot
and authored several books about housecleaning, starting a business, organizing, de-cluttering, writing, and public speaking. You can find some of his books in libraries, bookstores, and of course, on Amazon. In one book (and most likely some others), he talked about how much of modern life is overkill; we have, and consistently seek, more, more, more, and more. He specifically mentioned paint colors. And, most pointedly, green. He quoted a number (and I am so very sorry that I cannot recall what exactly it was, but it was HUGE, in the hundreds), of how many colors of green paint one could buy at a paint store. “You don’t need that many greens,” he said. “There aren’t that many greens.”
Well, I’ve just returned from a trip to Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. And, as much as I respect Don Aslett, I think he might be wrong.
The North Carolina Visitor’s Center, on east-bound I-40
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- Overcast at the Visitor’s Center
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- Lots of green here, in a bed by the snack machines. Notice the blue-leafed hosta in the back at the left.
Shepherdstown and Bakerton, West Virginia
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- The Town Run, a spring-fed creek that runs through Shepherdstown and down into the Potomac River
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- The Run, running by “The Little House,”
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- and down into the Potomac
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- The Bakerton Quarry
You can see, I’m sure, Mr. Aslett’s point.
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- This is just one of three or four paint lines at just one store.
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- More greens
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- In case you’re wondering, there are also yellow-toned whites and blue-toned whites and so on and so on and so on. About 15 of each.
Still…
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- Trees around the corner from me
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- The greens in my front yard
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- It’s not just the variety in the different trees’ leaves, it’s what the colors look like in bright sunlight and when shaded by clouds, at daybreak and at sunset. (This assortment is on west-bound I-40 between Ridgecrest and Asheville, N.C.)
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- It’s the colors of the leaves and the colors IN the leaves. It’s the sunshine and shadows on the lawn.
God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.
Genesis 1:11-13
I’m going to take this photo out to the side bed and show it to my own hostas and exhort them: “Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!”
*The Title is a reference to Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog’s signature song, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”