Green and Ever Green

Over the years, I’ve collected a powerful assortment of little entertainments. Some are old. Really old. Others, I just picked up last week. They’re very low tech and simple to operate. They don’t need batteries or sit plugged in wasting power until they are needed. They can be used over and over again and when you’re done they can be passed along to a friend or even a stranger. They are, when you think about it, green in the truest sense. My state-of-the-art green toy? It’s a book. I grew up in a house filled with books. When I look back, I remember only a few toys. A favorite doll. My red Christmas bicycle. Some painted wooden blocks. I had art supplies and paper dolls, and when I was older a stereo of my own. But when I think about the things I loved the most, I can recall shelf after shelf of books. We were all readers. What we had read or were reading was the topic of conversation whenever we gathered. We discussed, argued, defended and dissected books. I carried that tradition with me with my own family. Each of my children was given books before they were even born. Later, I might have been able to resist cries for a toy or candy, but they had me when they asked for a book and they knew it. Nothing has changed. I’d still prefer time with a good book to anything else. It’s a way to travel without leaving my chair. A way to learn without going to school. A way to become a new person, have an adventure or broaden my horizon without doing more than turning a page. It’s still my favorite gift to get and give. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy time on the computer. I enjoy a lot of time on the computer. I watch television occasionally and can, when the mood is right, be coaxed into playing a game on the Wii. And then there’s my phone. When I go, they’ll have to pry my BlackBerry from my hand. But I know all of those “toys” come with a cost to the environment. A book, especially an old book or a borrowed book or a book that was passed along and will be passed along again after you’ve read it is a kinder, gentler form of entertainment. It isn’t just green. It’s evergreen.