Reclaiming Green on Gaddafi's Last Day

I spent today sitting in a child-sized chair, orchestrating 15 half-hour long parent-teacher conferences. The goal? To communicate to parents that we know their child's strengths and challenges, their passions and antipathies. To share how we challenge their child, without setting the bar too high. And, most importantly, to let parents know that this child is appreciated and loved.

For parent-teacher conferences, I wore malachite earrings (our school colors are green and white) and a recycled-computer-part pendant. I bought this pendant at the Delaplane Strawberry Festival last summer from Motherbored, on the web at etsycom/shop/ShellyMacdesigns. 
I love the writing on this chip:
BUSY LIGHT, with items (nails?) seeming to fall from above, and a cluster of stuff clogging the space below.

My busy light was on all day. But then it's been flashing ever since school started. And that's how it should be: I'm a teacher.

But enough about my pendant--this is an earring blog! I bought these malachite earrings years ago when I was teaching science, to wear during my 7th grade geology unit (rocks can be beautiful!) and to show green-and-white school spirit.  

At the end of my 8 AM to 5:15 PM day of sitting in a small chair, I tidied up and then headed home. When I tuned into NPR, I began to hear hints that something dramatic had happened in Libya today. Exiles talking about returning home. Discussions of post-Gaddafi Libya. Thanks to the pledge breaks, it was 15 minutes before I discovered that Gaddafi was gone.

I first posted about the Libyan struggle on February 26th; I first posted this Libyan Independence Flag on March 21st. I think it's fitting that I wore my pure green earrings on the last day that fear of Muammar Gaddafi can touch the hearts of Libyans. The pure green flag that symbolized Gaddafi will no longer fly in Libya. Today, green can once again stand for progress, for growth, for environmental awareness. Like Libya, green has been set free.

And I can gain a bit of perspective, once again, on my own life. I just spent 9 hours sitting in a chair. Not 9 months in a war-torn country. Not 42 years in the regime of a deluded dictator.