Entrapment of the Lawn

There is an ongoing, fierce competition between the tendrils of grass in my lawn and yours truly. Fueled by fertilizers sprayed by a mechanical contraption with remarkable efficiency multiple times a year, these rapacious botanical lives rise from the soil with savage zeal. Sensitive about my social standing in the neighborhood- lest the reputation be forever tarnished with “that house with ugly grass”- I muscle my battery-operated lawn mower out of the garage.

Unleashing its ferociously rotating blades, I snip the sprouts- in precisely set height, with passionate set of movements- propelled by lawn aesthetics. With the feeble lawnmower I own, it consumes three full rounds of effort to cover the entire lawn, each executed over separate days. By the time I conclude, the trimmed verdure is already gleefully en route to a vertical ascent, almost taunting me.

I do not surrender. I may grant this insolent enemy a day or two of reprieve, but I return – whirring mower in hand- ready to inflict incisive injury on their crowns, demanding submission to the ground. And so it goes. It is a process.

The absurdity of this endeavor does not escape me. You spend money, chemicals, and water to make the grass grow vigorously, only to invest equal effort to tame it. The effort committed to this enterprise is myriad. Intimidating machines are hauled onto the lawns. They thunder across the turf, combusting gasoline. Their loud decibels waking up infants napping in cribs, and shift workers attempting to appease somnolence. Water channeled from distant sources directed to them in magical spatters through an elaborate sprinkler system dedicated solely to this objective. A passionate few even bag the grass clippings in large paper sacks to have them hauled to landfills. Noxious chemicals are poured to fertilize, and to subdue the weeds. Edges are trimmed. Clippings are blown. Using one or another form of physical force.

For what?

No cattle to graze the grass. Bereft of the leisurely crunch, striving to ingest the entirety of the vegetation; satiety and nourishment contingent on these elements of nature. Nor the liberty of unperturbed proliferation into wilderness. I grasp for meaning. Yet, I cannot extricate myself from the entrapment of the lawn.