By Michael Traynor
My Father would often remark at this time of year about the beauty of a day bearing so much green. He was a practiced seer of both the forest and the trees. A favored poet was of course Joyce Kilmer, who would have heartily agreed.
The day to most honor this sentiment in Chicago is July 19th, which statistically speaking is the warmest day of our calendar year. That makes July 19th our Green Day! The day’s combination of maximum warmth and abundant sunshine produces a verdant, multilayered stage for the riot of life parading across it.
To honor the mosaic of color, pattern and shade that marks our Green Day, following are a few photos taken in Lincoln Park this July 19.
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Kermit the frog once lamented his green color, because it “blends in with so many ordinary things” making him feel ordinary. Too bad Kermit did not realize how essential green is, especially in summertime. Green provides the verdant lush palette that gives every splash of summertime color the perfect showcase to stand out and be extraordinary. Green offers every ordinary thing in nature this opportunity to be seen as extraordinary, if even for just a single moment. I wish Kermit could have understood that in summertime, it is the color green that adds the “extra’ to every ordinary experience. So green is the most extraordinary color of all! Green deserves its own holiday. May I suggest July 19th be declared “Green Day?”
