By Jim Studer
It’s green, green, they say on the far side of the hill. The words are from the New Christy Minstrels’ song from my high school days. Green. Naomi Shihab Nye wrote a short story, “Allied with Green,” about a girl who wrote an essay on green. Lucy was fascinated by green and the need for it in life. Lucy’s teacher gave her a ‘C,’ no imagination. The word green comes from the Greek by way of German. It meant growth. To me growth is allied with green.
When I was in high school, I read a short story by J.F. Powers, the name of which I have forgotten. The story featured an old man who had been forced into retirement and was seeking a part time job before Christmas in order to earn money for presents for his wife and others. He filled out all the job applications using his pen filled with green ink. Green ink had been his trademark as a white collared office worker. The story stayed with me, and when I started teaching, I decided that my students would never have to face comments and marked errors on their papers that traditionally appeared in red. So green it was.
I used green in both my professional and personal life. When I taught in Sáo Paulo, Brazil in the 1980s, people told me they recognized my letters before they could read the return address because of the green ink. I still use green ink. As I write this column, I see green words on a yellow legal pad. All three of my books were penned in green. My growth as a teacher and writer is “allied with green.”