It's Not Easy Being Green

Today, I went to the library to do some research for my book proposal and ran across a book written for Jim Henson by his friends called, It's Not Easy Being Green and Other Things to Consider. There is very little narrative. It is mostly a collection of quotes. Many of them from the Muppets.

Since I'm on vacation, I had time to simply sit in the floor between the shelves and read it on the spot. It turned out to be incredible inspiration.

One of the big surprises was that so many people who worked with him compared Jim Henson to Kermit. They told how endless optimism, beautiful innocence and calm in the face of chaos were very much Jim. Most of the quotes by Jim reflected that simple beauty of heart.

Another surprise was Jim's view on business and art. I know a lot of artists who feel that art and business are incompatible. This from Jim Henson..."We are primarily a company of creative people whose art we are helping to bring to the world. At the same time, we recognize that business enables art 'to happen,' and that business plays an essential role in communicating art to a broad audience."

At the risk of revealing a deep level of uncoolness, I have to confess that one of my favorite songs of all time is Rainbow Connection. Today I experienced it differently seeing the words as print in a book.

"Who said that every wish, would be heard and answered,
when wished on the morning star.
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it.
Look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargzing,
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me."

So today, I'm celebrating the serendipity of finding a little green book on the bottom shelf and feeling a great deal of gratitude for the man who created the characters who taught me over weekday morning cereal in the years before I went to kindergarten.