Monday, June 2, 2014

In defense of mowing



Some say that mowing is an activity for lumpen conformist suburbanites who believes in marketing mumbo jumbo. I heartily disagree. I love mowing. I hope to some day own a home so that I can mow, compost and building a pump track in my back yard. The drone of the mower, the verifiable accomplishment of making high grass low, walking around a yard and the beer afterward make mowing a zen activity nearly as fun as going for a bike ride.

This is not to say everything should be mown, but there should be a place for everyone to roll a bocce ball or put a lawn chair. The rest can be woods or tall grass, but a lawn is a great thing-- a rug for the earth.

I had been hearing a lot of mowing denigration lately, but then I read this. Done right, mowing and landscaping can be a form of expression. It isn't cul-de-sac oppression, it's a canvass upon which one makes grass their own. Contrary to the atomization of the suburban existence, it is the means by which one can personalization and beauty to the terrain. The management company for your apartment or condo can't do that. That's where the conformity and submission lies: living under the authoritarian landscaping of a common interest community. There's no individualism in the lawn someone else mowed for you.

Long live the lawn! Express yourself with stripes!

5 comments:

  1. Jesus and Mary Bicycle ChainJune 2, 2014 at 5:54 PM

    I used to use one of the non-motorized rotary blade mowers as pictured until I mowed over poison ivy and shredded it all over my shins and ankles. Lesson learned. I am now an obsessive poison ivy spotter and have avoided it for 9 years and counting while mountain biking, trail running, and using my side discharge gas mower. Question for anyone out there in the inter-web ether: What is the bike parking/lock-up/storage situation like at Emmanuel Lutheran for the bike and dinner event on the 7th? Thanks.

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  2. I love the reel mower! I thought I was the only one to have one!

    When I first started reading this, I thought a fight was brewing between two bloggers, but turns out not.

    Question: Do you mow the lawn or cut the grass?

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  3. I like both types of mowers. I like ride on mowers, too.

    I think more the lawn or cut the grass depends on how tell it is. Or maybe whether or not it's a lawn. A general: specific type thing

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  4. For Dinner and Bikes - there is a lot of room on the fence behind the church in the parking lot. BYO lock. Definitely lock up.

    As I posted previously, some people like mowing the lawn. As a rural youth who wasted countless hours mowing our redneck estate, I'm tired of it.

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  5. Thanks for the parking lot info. Appreciated.

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