Recycling with humor

Yesterday we drove down to Virginia to see my daughter Phoebe perform the role of Miss Prism in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.  

For the occasion, I wore my Fair Trade people made in Kenya of recycled Coca-cola cans and wire.

So what's the connection?

Phoebe was with me at 10,000 Villages in Arlington, VA when I bought them a couple of years ago. She has invested a lot of time and energy in recycling programs. She wants to study in French-speaking Africa, and to help create sustainable projects in villages.

But The Importance of Being Earnest is a 116 year old British play...

This youth production worked with a bare bones budget. Their sets and costumes were cobbled together: recycled, reduced, reused. These young people--late teens and early 20's--delved into archaic ideas and language, toyed with the puns and Victorian manners, and staged a play that Wilde would have enjoyed.

Miss Prism wore a preposterous lacy hat, a long black skirt, and a silky blouse with a little bow tie. Not-yet-20-year-old Phoebe sold her past-50-year-old maiden-lady governess, smitten with the local priest and with the joys of teaching German, geography, and political theory. She took something old and made it new again.

I am so proud, once again, to be her mom.