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!

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