Why Do I Keep This Up?
First some good news! I indicated in yesterday’s post that the young rabbit that is living in our backyard may have joined the circle of life. By that I mean the predator-prey relationship. The vegetarian rabbit is prey for larger carnivores. The rabbit that I have named Percival is still around! One day at a time for Percival. That’s no different than for the rest of us.
One defining dimension of our life in Batavia is nature, the proximity of the town to the Fox River. The Fox provided power to the industries that were the foundation for the early days of the town in the 1900s. The green of nature and the sheen of wetlands 
and the river surround the town and the neighborhoods. My interface with nature comes most often when it is time to mow the lawn. In normal times when there is ample rain, the grass grows and grows. We have a expansive back yard, that is sculpted around with a variety of trees and flowering plants. (Thank you to the previous owners of the property) Mowing is more than
an hour of work. Why do I keep at this chore? There’s no pleasure to walk behind a mower. In five days or so, I’ll have to repeat the routine. Like Sisyphus pushing his rock.
I think that Nature is at it’s prime with human 
oversight, with the addition of affection and care for the possibilities of form and color. I have an idea, an ideal if you will, of a healthy lawn, and of trees and flowers and wild animals in harmonious co habitation. There is a role which I can choose to 
play. My life is more satisfying if I dedicate a portion of my time and effort to the yard, to the trees growing there. Care taking does not end, because life means change.
We attended our first community event yesterday, the Batavia Block Party which was a 
taste-of-Batavia, classic car show and live music. The event was held on the Riverwalk along the east bank of the Fox. Of course I enjoyed the car show as I am a diehard gear-head. A car show is mostly eye-candy, street rods from 
Detroit’s heyday. The cars are a homage to a bygone era. For the most part they are to be looked at. You will not find any late night street racing anywhere at this point in time.
My favorite car at the show was a rat-rod pickup. I had a bit of conversation with the owner, who is a diesel mechanic. Unlike almost every other vehicle on display this one was born to run. It featured a turbocharged Cummins diesel. The weathered paint on the clam shell fenders made the old Dodge seem as if it had mystically “appeared” through a rupture in time.
4 thoughts on “Why Do I Keep This Up?”
Lawns are, by all definitions, completely superfluous. They are aesthetic (to a degree) without any other benefit except to fit within the context of what is expected. Before I sound too high and mighty, we also have a lawn that needs regular maintenance.: watering, mowing, weed control and on and on. It is what is expected within the social mores of almost any neighborhood. Though the Prairie Crossing subdivision in Grayslake is an exception where the community encourages native prairie grasses and wildflowers over manicured lawns. If I was a more willful person I would plow under our grass and plant the kinds of things that use less water, take up less time, and use less of the kinds of fertilizers that are poisoning the ground and our waterways. I know I’ll get there at some point, hopefully before I too become a part of the landscape.
You certainly feel strongly about lawns. As with all objects of perception the meaning arises from the relationship with the subject has to the object under discussion, lawns. We agree that a lawn requires work. Leave one alone for a few weeks and it becomes difficult to refer to what one sees as a “lawn.”
What if it is possible to conceive of a lawn as a frame, a bounded regularity that frames the intended object of interest, that is the trees, shrubs, flowing plants, birds and small mammals that live long the periphery of the manicured expanse of grass? The lawn is beside the point, as is the frame of a great painting, important and necessary, but in itself, a vector of focus toward what is the true interest. ….
Is this a reasonable possibility?
Hmmm! Not sure if the analogy of a frame works for me. I suspect I’ve seen too many lawns, perfectly green, in places like Phoenix or Southern California, where the water usage for a “green frame” is out of control. Aquifers are being drained, the Colorado River doesn’t even empty into the Pacific Ocean anymore because it’s all used up before it reaches its traditional end point. Water is a precious resource, just as the metals we mine from the earth or the air we breath. When we take it for granted, when we disturb the balance of nature, we will pay a price and we are currently paying that price. To me, lawns are a symptom of our complacency about the use of our natural resources. Not everything must be tidy or framed. Perhaps we can enjoy the serenity of our backyards even more if a portion of it is brick or deck and the other portion is native prairie. But, as noted above, I’m just a loud-mouthed hypocrite so there really is not much basis for me to harangue about.
Generally speaking I agree with you. We are abusing the earth with our practices, our very manner of living. In time Nature will rid itself of us. A fixation upon a green lawn seems neurotic, an obsession, a kind of social sickness. My neighbor waters his lawn. Perhaps somehow he has not learned that grass goes dormant in drought, and then greens up when the rains come? Maybe he does not care… I do not water my lawn for many reasons. The nod for the “win” in the argument goes to you. My offering of a lawn as a frame, a rather relatively uninteresting context for what is more intricate, beautiful and important — is my personal point of view of my own lawn.
I like the idea of a field of wildflowers in lieu of a lawn. A much improved habitat for insects and small mammals.