So…we painted a piano green.

In our defense, the sound board is warped, and it won’t hold a tune anymore. But we didn’t want to put it on the curb…so we’re turning it into a planter. (Can’t you just imagine some purple basil in there?)

I thought I was painting it a nice deep sage green, but something comes over me when I look at paint chips. This color is listed as “Mossy Bench,” but the members of our family agree it’s closer to “Day-Old Mate Latte.”

So we are dedicating this piano-planter to Pope Francis, as he is well known to love mate, the traditional Argentinian beverage. (Though I expect he likes his fresh, not day-old.)

Now it just needs a catchy name…something like Habemus Piano or Papa Piano or The Mate of Music. I’m open, as usual, to suggestions.

“The family is the hospital closest to us: when someone is sick, they are cared for there, where possible.  The family is the first school for children, it is the unwavering reference point for the young, it is the best home for the elderly.  It is the first school of mercy, because it is there that we have been loved and learned to love, have been forgiven and learned to forgive.”

-Pope Francis, The Name of God is Mercy