Mood: Optimistic with a touch of Realism...
Weather: Sunny and beautiful with a touch of a cool breeze...
Today the grass had one hell of a joyous time! The sun was out and although it was quite chilly, the warmth generated allowed the buds to continue budding and the grass to continue growing. My neighbors continue to embarrass me as they have already begun cutting their lawns, while mine grows like a shaggy hippie's hair at Woodstock and will continue to do so.
Yes, I awoke today from my slumber to the sounds of various lawnmower engines blaring as their blades cut down mother natures version of the sidewalk. Yet, the grass did not complain, in fact it just stood there and took the beating as if nothing was going on. The grass did not revolt, strike or bear arms in a revolution against the lawnmowers, it just simply let the mowers do their thing.
I witnessed this event and throughout the day could not help myself from comparing the grass to modern society. As creative and grandiose as we have become, we allow ourselves to fall into neatly designed and organized routines. As efficient and effective as these routines are, I fear they also blind us to many things that occur in our general area. It is not until the giant mower blade from the sky comes down and chops us that we realize the futility of our daily regiments and how blinded we actually have become. Unfortunately, when this occurs it is often to late to actually do anything but simply...survive.
What this means is that society contains diverse groups of people whom organize their lives a certain way. After we are born, we find ourselves grouped into these different categories and depending on how we live our lives, continue in one of these groups. We get so comfortable in a routine and with a certain type of surroundings that I believe we allow ourselves to become weak. It is as if we as a people try and avoid change on a daily basis, but are helpless to it when something occurs that disrupts or destroys the routine we label as our life.
Maybe the grass enjoys being cut by the lawnmower blade, realistically the grass cannot do much to stop the blade, so it has come to terms with this reality and has adjusted to co-exist with the lawnmower. This is very important when you think about how modern day society works. People wake up and usually go to work only to come home eat, shit and then sleep. When a random event occurs that disrupts this balance, often labelled as either a terrorist attack, weather activity or unfortunate accident, we stop for a second and start to look around. Unfortunately, our routine persists and often continues almost immediately, which makes true change quite difficult to sweep over us. This is actually both good and bad as it allows us to stop negative change from taking us over, while positive change can continue after the proper conditions are met.
After all, grass does have strong roots, which allow it to be flexible and adapt to severe change. Society much like grass shares in this ability to adapt, but if we allow our roots to slowly degrade over time, can we still confidently say that our ability to adapt will remain?
I wonder if this kind of thinking can be used alongside the global warming debates our society currently has? Does comparing grass to society signify our relationship with the natural world? How does nature shape us, how do we shape nature? More importantly, how does our government policy allow us to shape nature? Can we grow to fast?
I want you to reflect on these questions and the next time you walk by a lawn or any grass in particular, ask yourself how your daily life relates to that of grass? Do you sway back and fourth, powered by the events your society gives you like the grass sways with the wind?
Until next time!
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