Going Green is too often associated with the "SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT!" clause that has seemed to reincarnate itself from the kumbaya nature movement in the sixities. While there are many principles I agree with the new earth conscious environment, I am a bit annoyed that they have "pattened" the color green for all their advertisements, clauses and movements.
For me, growing up with Green meant something completely different--it was connected to the missionary term of being a greeny. Simply defined, a greeny is that innocent young man or woman that hasn't got a clue of what his missionary experience holds for him; from the discovery of a new culture (be it Brasil or Washington D.C.) to the communication conflicts with a companion.
Yet to me, being a greeny can also mean standing at the bottom of a huge mountain of expectations. Any green missionary knows the expectations of an "honorable returned missionary" are high; and looking up (or forward) to two long years it seems impossible to accomplish such a task.
Such a principle has applied to me as I am beginning of graduate school. I see the endless potential of learning new things, making a difference through my assistantship and organizational involvement; and then, I feel as if its impossible to make it to the end of it alive, and I turn green.
However, life's experiences have taught me that it is the small and simple things one does every day that gets you to the top of the mountain. I love the parable of the train tracks that President Gordon B. Hinckley mentioned years ago in discourse. He described an experience a passenger train had when it arrived in Newark, New Jersey without the baggage car. Sadly, the reasoning behind the lost baggage was a three-inch switch that had not been properly flipped, resulting in a 1300 mile distance between the passangers in New Jersey and the baggage in Lousiana.
Such examples make me muse over the changes in life. For big changes in our life can result in the three inches that will help us reach New Jersey or sadly dump us off at Louisana.
Effort. Diligence. Strategy. Accuracy. Dedication--With such demands, no wonder I am going green.
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