Green is the universal symbol for life. Green means living plants, photosynthesis, forests, prairies and meadows. It means fullness and abundance. It is a primary color of money for this reason. It means GO. It means activate, engage, enrich and encompass life. Green is the color too, of jealousy, that is because a jealous person has a whole other second life as someone they do not recognize. When a person is green with jealousy, or envy, they grow like an out of control weed with probing tendrils seeking out every minute detail. They squeeze the life out of the love they once knew. They smother, and are themselves consumed.

Green, as an environmental concept means alive as well. To live green, to be green is to be alive to the fact that life is not a thing, but a being. It is an interaction, a dance of creation. Green is the color of harmony in the rain forest, of a balance in the meadow and the full blooming of an abundant garden of nourishing foods. Green is the right color for a healthy diet. When people do not eat green they are usually eating too much fat, grease and starch. Vegetables and fruits that are green are full of vitamins and minerals. Foods that are not green are usually artificial, processed and create obesity, disease and broken relationships between living things. Of course many luscious fruits and vegetables are not green, but red, orange, purple or brown, but the leaves of their origin plants are usually green.

Living green as a concept cannot be divorced from life on earth. When one speaks of green architecture, or green engineering, they may talk about renewable resources, or energy-saving principles, or even roofs and walls that are gardens themselves. But the idea of separating green concepts from the green of the myriad types of life on earth is not possible, or advisable.

There is a political party called the Green Party. They have a long way to go for the general public to realize that green just means following nature’s brilliant plans and laws. It is not easy being green, because human beings evolved in a green world, and developed anti-green economies of scale that were based on exploiting stored (green) energy from ancient fossils such as coal, gas and oil. Now that these are disappearing, or at least becoming harmful to the green of life on earth, people are turning to green technology which more directly uses the energy of the sun and its expression through weather of the wind and geothermal types of stored energy.

When all of this innovation is realized, people will have come full circle into the green ethos of life on earth. To be green at something means to be new at it, and if humanity is wise, they will be forever regenerating new, and ever more harmonious ways to support the sustainable and restoring life that supports life itself.