Hello Captain,

When I came home from work last night, Eamonn was painting a picture of Buzz Lightyear.
The water in the cup was very brown.

Eamonn said, "Hey dad, look how brown the water is."

We talked for a while how it got brown, and how colors change (color wheel: primary and secondary colors).
Then, out of the blue, he asked, "Dad, was the Hackensack River brown like that?"

I said, "Yes, unfortunately it was."

He asked, "Why?" and I told him reasons from natural run-off to pollution.

Then he was really silent and continued to paint. A moment later, he looked up and asked, "It's cleaner now because of Captain Sheehan and his friends, right?"

I said, "Yep, and you are one of his friends because you helped to clean up the River. Remember when we fell in on the canoe? Well, when I was a kid, we would have gotten dirty falling in the River. Now, you can get clean."

He nodded, and smiled, and went back to painting. You are on his mind.

—- Rich Dwyer, Jersey City