I am going to try to ignore my anxieties about the rise of fascism across the world, the growing threat to civilisation from climate change and environmental degradation, and the criminally corrupt and incompetent Tory UK government. They’re all interlinked but let’s just sit back for a few moments and enjoy the sunshine, because that’s what we’ve had this week – sunshine.
It’s seems like we’ve had six months of wet, dreary weather, never particularly cold but with few days when being outside was a pleasure. But that is what the climate experts have told us to expect as the world warms – milder, wetter winters with increased risk of storms and flooding events. In the summer we can also expect more heatwaves, with droughts and temperatures in many parts of the world reaching the limits of human existence. For now though let’s try and forget the worries and how little is being done to combat climate change and enjoy being warm and dry and bathed in spring sunshine. There is no doubt that shedding a few clothes, raising one’s face to the blue sky and feeling the sunshine on one’s skin (not for too long) is a delight.
In addition, we have had the pleasure of having our flat decorated (not all of it, but a sizeable proportion). OK it means that we have been disrupted somewhat – pictures taken down, furniture moved, dust exposed – but the pleasure is seeing the transformation made by an skilled decorator. I don’t like d.i.y. I’m not very good at it, mainly because I haven’t bothered to learn how to do it properly, because I don’t enjoy it. I much prefer to be doing what I am doing now – writing. Watching an expert work is itself a pleasure, let alone seeing the transformation she’s made. Anyway, we will soon be back to normal in a smarter looking home – and I’ll have to re-hang those pictures.
The topic for writing group this week was “Shades of Green.” I was somewhat distracted (what with the decorating, etc) so didn’t have much time for planning or actually writing. I think I was also overwhelmed by a surfeit of ideas generated by such a tempting subject. Would I go down the “Grey” route – sexual satire perhaps, or choose environmental disasters and dystopias. I looked up “green” on Wikipedia and was astounded, not by the number of shades of green (there are a lot), but by the variety of meaning and inference that the word carries. I tried to reflect on some of those in the piece that did get written although I am the first to admit that it is not a gripping story. Here then, for want of anything better, is Shades of Green.
Shades of Green
Jade Honeydew peered into the mirror. Her straw-coloured hair framed her face but did she look a little green? She had felt nauseous at the thought of starting her new job. She was green with envy of those whose self-confidence enabled them to take on new roles with ease. It was a big move for her, a huge responsibility and she didn’t want to approach it as a green ingénue.
She had dressed in a new bold green suit with a paler silk blouse. The shade gave her a feeling of authority and intelligence, without the brash threat of red, the cold and distance of blue or the pretentiousness of purple. With her self-assurance restored she stepped outside her door. The garden was a green oasis in the city. Wild flowers speckled the small uncut lawn, bluebells flowered beneath the small copper beech and shrubs were bursting into leaf.
She took the metro to the city headquarters of her new employer. Travelling by public transport was part of the green philosophy that had shaped her career. Now she was taking on the task of directing green innovations for the company.
The glass and aluminium frontage of the tower with its full height green wall was modern and forward looking, although she knew that it hid a steel and concrete core as carbon belching as other corporate skyscrapers. She took the lift to her department, met dozens of her new colleagues and at last found herself sitting at her new desk.
As the day passed, Jade began to have doubts about her role in the company. She had expected to be driving forward green policies to help her employers meet the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. She was distressed to learn that her department was within the marketing and PR division, and that she answered to the Director of Communications. There was no direct link with supply and manufacturing, not even waste management, and she had no contact with the board. She suspected that her position was simply that of an actor in front of a green screen displaying fantasies of green developments.
Jade travelled home that evening feeling disgruntled and angry. She had to admit that her new position was as the launderer-in-chief for the company’s greenwashing.
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ellifont 