One of the things I love about walking very early in the morning is that the noises and distractions of the day haven't quite started yet and I can greet the day, and all my bird and animal friends, quietly and with gratitude. One day a few weeks ago was the exception, a very wet one as a matter of fact.
I was walking on a residential street lined on both sides with well established, older homes and beautiful big trees making a canopy for me from the rising sun. At that point of the morning it was low and just above the horizon. I always walk with sunglasses and a hat with a brim to protect my old eyes, but when it's that low, the glare slides right between glasses and hat. On that morning, when I came to a break in the trees in front of someone's house, I had to lower my head and divert my eyes towards the street to keep from being blinded for the few moments it took me to reach shade again. In those few moments, I wasn't focused on the houses or their front landscapes ...which is why I ended up with an unexpected morning shower!
The house that was sitting right between the two shade trees and open to the morning sun was, at that moment, getting soaked from a water sprinkler that reached way beyond their picture-perfect lawn all the way across the sidewalk to the curb. I walked right through it. To say I was surprised and put off my stride was an understatement. I had to dart out into the street to keep from getting soaked. If it had been 70 degrees, it would have felt good. Since it was only 56 degrees, it was a rude awakening to say the least. When I reached the safety of the sidewalk again (thankfully there were no cars at that hour to run into when I escaped to the street), I turned around to get a view of my attacker. The homeowners had positioned the sprinkler to wave back and forth over the lawn so it didn't hit the house, only the sidewalk. How thoughtful of them. It made me stop and get a good look at all the lawns up and down the street. As I continued on my walk, I took extra care to see who had used their frontage to grow something beautiful or useful, and who had just plopped a lawn down there because "that's what everybody does, right?" As it turns out, more than half the homes had front lawns just sitting there. Some were small, but some were massive and included the sides and backs of the homes. There they sat using up water and soil just to make an impression on the neighbors.
I'm not here to argue against the existence of lawns. They certainly have a use, especially if you have pets or kids who need a safe, soft place to play and exercise. However, after what we've been though for the last two years and the realization that we can, and should, be more self-sufficient and sustainable, it changes the need to impress the neighbors to a chance to help feed the neighbors and your family as well. Even a front lawn can be used to grow herbs and leafy greens that are decorative as well as edible. And let's not even get into the use of chemicals to keep the weeds and dandelions out of the lawn that poison the ground water, yours as well as your neighbors (by the way, did you know that dandelions are edible and can be used for salads as well as teas?). By now there is no excuse for anyone not to know about what Roundup can do to your health ... is a nice lawn worth it if your child gets too sick to use it?
Maybe I'm preaching to the choir here. All I know is that in this day and age, it's time to stop thinking about impressing the neighbors or keeping up appearances and start thinking about how we should be using the gift of our little piece of the earth. Do we want to feed it, and nurture it, or do we want it to look pretty as it slowly dies underneath? Do we want to feed our families or poison them? Do we want to start taking responsibility for where and how our food is grown, or continue to leave it up to the folks who are more interested in their wallets than your health? If I'm going to get an unexpected morning shower like that, I'd rather it be in the interest of good health and responsible homeowners than keeping up with the Jones!
And so it is.
