I'd Like to Start a Campaign

A classmate said that one day her home was filled with the strong smell of pesticides. Apparently, a neighbor just had their lawn sprayed, fertilized and who knows what else. The fumes carried in the wind across the neighborhood. It is actually rather good news, in a sad and twisted way, that most people don't open their windows but use the heater or A/C.

I was driving to the library of the Josephinum Seminary, and Bruce was mid-song, full-throttle. I had to give him his due, so I drove down some side roads to scream my head off with him for a while. This was in Worthington, OH, with very high-priced homes. I was horrified by what I saw. Every lawn looked the same. Every lawn was filled with thick, identical-colored green grass. Why they even had grass is beyond me, it was so doggone fake they might as well have just installed some plastic imitation grass and be done with it. There was an old lady standing at the curb spraying the sole dandelion on the block (she wasn't wearing any protective gear). There is again some twisted (but somehow good) irony when you consider that none of the kids would ever think to play outside.

I grew up in the country. A nice landscaped lawn is something to behold, but its not natural. Its unhealthy. You need worms and bugs and birds. Natural actually looks good, when you give it a chance. You need fresh green grass to play in and let your dog roll around in. You need some well-worn paths. Get a little dirt on your hands, it won't kill you--as long as its free from pesticides.

I want to start a campaign--a "Natural Lawn" campaign. Maybe have signs up in the yard saying, "The Natural Look". I would like to petition universities, businesses and homes to join me in this. Let nature takes its course. Don't spray your lawn. At the very worst, churn your lawn up and re-seed it every once in a while if you don't like the weeds. But in all honesty, when you mow it, you can hardly tell. It looks a little uneven, but it looks natural and healthy.

I don't want to infringe on anyone's freedoms, but there is no way to guarantee that what you spray on your lawn isn't going to pollute my air, my drinking water and my land. We're all downstream and downwind from each other. There's just no need to hose every square inch of our land with plant and critter-killing chemicals. Fish and frogs are showing strange mutations all over, we're also killing whole scale species because of this--not to mention ourselves, potentially. And for what? To have grass that you can't touch? Air that you can't breathe? Let your toes sink into the green grass, and treat yourself to nature's foot-massage.