Happy Earth Day!

I can’t believe this is the 39th anniversary of Earth Day today. I think the first time I ever heard about Earth Day was the 20th anniversary of it, which puts that at 1989, if my math is right. I can’t figure out if it’s gotten that much bigger and more important since then or just that where I grew up didn’t care about it.

Either way, this year both my kids’ preschools (yes, they go to different preschools) celebrated it this year.

Little Miss was easy. She was supposed to wear green to school. For St Patrick’s Day, I had a really hard time finding something green to wear. We settled on something in the green family. Learning from that, she now has a green shirt that we were able to wear today – and I remembered to put it on her, more impressively!

When I picked her up from preschool today, she had a little flower (begonia, I believe?) that she’d planted – yes, with the teacher’s help – in the bottom half of a pop bottle. I’m sort of bummed. She had a choice between pink, purple, and red. Apparently she has a new favorite color, and it isn’t purple anymore. I have some indoctrinating to do!

Mister Man, on the other hand, wasn’t required to wear green today, although he did anyway for the fun of it. For him, I’ve been supposed to send clean recyclable items into school for him to turn into art, I believe. I always feel a bit weird when I send in items like that, as the school gets a real glimpse of our lives. What exactly does a Kleenex box, a quart yogurt container, newspaper, an egg carton, a paper towel roll, and the box from my turkey bacon say about me and my family?

His class went one better. He got a homework assignment that’s due tomorrow. He has a big blue circle that he’s supposed to decorate. We haven’t done it yet because we can’t decide how to decorate it. Tomorrow morning after breakfast, right? He’s only in preschool and we’re already to that stage. We’re in big trouble!

The other part of his assignment is that he’s supposed to write down his “wish for the world” on a piece of paper that goes with the blue circle. His wish started out for the Thomas toys that he doesn’t have.

Me: Uhhh, Mister Man. The wish is supposed to be something you want for the entire world.
Mister Man: Then I want you and Grandma and Grandpa and Daddy to have some new trains, too.
Me: That’s not quite what I meant. The wish is something that everyone would want that would help them.
Mister Man: Ok, then Thomas stickers, too.
Me: Huh.
Mister Man: Yeah, I want them to have stickers, too.
Me: So you mean that you want all of the children of the world to have Thomas toys and stickers to play with?
Mister Man: I don’t know.
Me: Usually, the wish for the world would be something that people want but don’t have like a warm blanket at night or dinner in their tummy so they aren’t hungry all the time or enough water to drink so they aren’t thirsty or a house to keep them warm and safe or something like that.
Mister Man: My wish is to have Thomas trains. And stickers. Victor’s (yes, name changed) wish is for Spiderman.
Me: That’s an interesting wish.

That tells me two things right that. First, I’m not the only mom who’s having a hard time explaining Earth Day and the wish for the world to 4 and 5 year olds. That made me feel a bit better. And second, everyone else already has their homework turned in. I guess I need to get my act in gear!

And my Earth Day? I never did figure out a grand gesture that didn’t seem hollow or empty.