Gabriel Roth
I am 16 months old, and my grandmother, Nana, is writing this for me. This week, Nana and Grandpa have been visiting. They say that watching me and listening to me is better than any television show could ever be. This must be true, because they have never turned on the television, just the way Mommy and Daddy never turn on the television when I am in the room. (They say it might do something to my brain.)
I thought you might like to read about a morning in my life. Small as I am, Nana thinks that I am an interesting example of a person who lives a sustainable life style, although, obviously, my parents and I need to make some compromises now and then. Who doesn't?
Mommy and Daddy are musicians. Two of my first words were "violin" and "cello," the instruments they play. They decided to do this for a living because they love to do it. From what Nana tells me about "sustainable," this seems like making a sustainable career choice, because music does not wear out and never gets used up.
Would you like to hear about my morning? First, I woke up in my yellow room on the second floor of a brownstone in Brooklyn. While Mommy was changing me, I looked out the window. Mommy loves flowers, and has planted ferns and shade-loving flowers in our garden. She says there is a book called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and when I look out the window at all the leaves I think it should be called Lots of Trees Grow in Brooklyn. Whenever I look out that window, I clap my hands together and say "mosquito," because often that's what we do in the garden. Sometimes I also say "bird" or "sparrow." There are lots of birds out there; I guess they like to eat the mosquitoes.
When I came downstairs to the kitchen, Nana fed me, because Mommy had to leave to go to work. Her work today is playing a Mozart quartet in a church. Daddy is away this week in Saratoga, where he is playing for the New York City Ballet. Mommy and Daddy travel to work on a subway train. We only use our car for long trips--for example, when we go to see my grandparents in Philadelphia or Oberlin, or when Mommy and I go to Saratoga next week to join Daddy. Daddy made sure the car he bought got what he called good mileage, and he's glad he did.
My favorite foods right now are bananas, yogurt, pears, kiwi, tofu, raisins, and some of the delicious things that come in jars marked "organic tropical fruit blend" or "organic chicken and wild rice." Some of these I can eat myself. But I always let the person who is feeding me know what I want to eat. I am very good at saying "no" when I am in my high chair. I guess my body knows what it needs, and, thank goodness, my family all seem to understand that.
After I got dressed today, Nana took me to the playground on Smith Street. I love Smith Street, which is right around the corner from where I live. You can see all the things that go that are in my picture books. My favorite things are taxis, fire engines, ambulances, mail trucks, garbage trucks, and motorcycles. Nana says she likes Smith Street because you can buy everything you want just by walking a couple of blocks. Sometimes you don't even need to give money: some nice Korean ladies around the corner always hand me a banana when we go to their fruit and vegetable shop. The best store, though, is a whole foods store near my playground, where my parents buy most of my food. They sometimes give me a banana to eat when we're in there, so I don't fuss.
Yesterday, I saw a wonderful thing. A street near the whole foods store was full of balloons! They made an arch over the street and hung from trees all along the sidewalk. I was out of my stroller by then, so I started running toward those balloons and saying "Wow! Neat!" Nana managed to keep up with me, and, when we went past the man who was blowing up balloons, he asked me what color I wanted. I said "orange," and he gave me a big orange one. Nana tied it to my wrist, but I untied it to see what would happen, and it floated up into a tree. The kind man gave me another, and this time Nana tied it to the stroller. All along the street, there were lots of people sitting on their stoops and having fun. Some people were having a "stoop sale" because they had things they didn't want any more that they hoped other people would want. Sometimes our block on Third Street has a party, too. But in the summer, people mostly just have fun sitting on their stoops. I like to sit up high on the stairs and blow bubbles to watch them float down.
The Carroll Street playground is only three blocks away from my house. It is so much fun to go there. It is nice and shady in the summer. I like to pick up the leaves that have fallen from the tall trees and give them to whoever is with me. I like to look at the flowers the people in the neighborhood have planted around the edges of the park. I draw things on the ground with sidewalk chalk. I get pushed on the swing. I climb on the jungle gym. Today, I saw a new thing on the jungle gym. At first, I said "ant," but Nana said it was a caterpillar. It was a very small one, not like the big fat one in my book. I loved that caterpillar. I loved it so much I leaned down and kissed it. I'm not sure whether the caterpillar liked that or not. It was kind of quiet afterwards for a while.
A little farther down the street is an arts center, where I sometimes go to music classes with Mommy and Daddy, "so I get to be with other children." We sing songs like "taxi, taxi, sitting in the back seat," and "slowly slowly slowly slowly goes the garden snail." The other children are sometimes kind of scary to me, because I usually am with big people instead. But I am getting used to them.
Sometimes Mommy goes into one of the stores on Smith Street and gets me clothes or books or sunscreen. (I need that because I have pale skin and red hair.) Yesterday, Nana and Grandpa walked a long way with me to a big bookstore, where there were lots of books and I was allowed to take them off the shelves to look at them. Mommy told Nana that she was amazed the bookstore was so "child-friendly," but I know why. While I was looking at the books, Nana and Grandpa found four books they couldn't resist buying for me.
I live in a wonderful neighborhood. There are so many people busily going up and down the sidewalk all the time, with packages, strollers, dogs, and bicycles--old people, young people, and babies. The people are many different colors, like my babysitters. My babysitter Danielle, for example, looks very different from my mommy. Mommy has light skin and blond hair, but Danielle has dark skin and black hair. Mommy and Daddy say that people in this neighborhood come from all over the world. No wonder I do not understand everybody all the time, because sometimes they speak languages I do not know. Lydia, another babysitter, is teaching me Spanish. My favorite word is "luna" (moon). I call the ball Lydia and I play with "bola."
I was quite hungry when I got home today. While I was eating lunch, I asked for "Pete Seeger! Pete Seeger!" Mommy says I always ask for the Pete Seeger CD. Today I heard the whole CD five times in a row. His voice makes me feel happy. I can say the words to some of the songs, and sometimes, after lunch, Mommy or Nana dances with me when Pete Seeger is singing. Yesterday, I drew a picture for him with colored pencils, and Nana is going to send it to him. At the bottom of the picture, Nana wrote something I said: "Pete Seeger--like that!"
I wonder what we are going to do this afternoon. If it's sunny, maybe we will go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden again. I like to run on the grass there and look at the fish and turtles in the pond. When Mommy said we were going there a few days ago, I said "pretty flowers." Nana and Grandpa think I am very smart because of that, but they don't have any idea how much I know.
I know a lot of things because I notice a lot of things. I like to look at a rainbow made of silk threads that hangs in Daddy's study. Uncle Christopher bought it at the Eugene Saturday Market. I always say "pretty colors" and then find each color. I like green a lot. And, of course, yellow and red and orange. There are other things in my house that I notice, especially in my books. I have almost a hundred books, I suppose. Ever since I was a month or so old, Mommy and Daddy have read to me. I love books about animals. Sometimes I lean down and kiss the pictures of the animals. I also try to kiss my cat, Lola, but usually she runs away. She is very soft.
I always notice when a truck goes by, or a subway train comes out of the tunnel just beyond our street, or a plane or helicopter flies in the sky. I know that, not from looking, but from hearing.
I hope that I will remember to notice things when I am older, too. Nana says that is the first step to living sustainably. I hope that I'll always make lots of room in my brain and my heart for the things around me, just the way I do now.
--Gabriel Roth
Nancy Roth, grandmother of Gabriel and mother of his father Michael and his uncle Christopher (a.k.a. Chris, editor of this magazine), is the author of many books, as well as articles in past issues of TL. An Episcopal priest, she also leads workshops on prayer, Christian yoga, and many other topics. For details about her writing and her work, see her website: www.RevNancyRoth.org .
©2004 Talking Leaves
Late Summer/Fall 2004
Volume 14, Number 3
A Day in the Life: The Many Faces of Eco-Community