I picked up our new lawn mower today, a bright, red one pristine in its box. As I was driving home it occurred to me how odd it is that we have lawns and that we mow them. I’m pretty sure that expanses of artificially uniform mown hybrid grass were not in the original set-up. Don’t get me wrong – they’re nice. They’re just…kind of odd. And the more you think about it the stranger they seem.
Can you imagine how bizarre it must sound to people from really dry places, or where agriculture is the food in your own yard’s garden – that we clear off arable land and plant a bunch of nonfood on it, then water and mow it to uniform height? And how strange is it that we have municipal regulations (as we do here in my town) about the allowable height of one’s grass?
Lawn mowers are all about our capacity to control and shape the earth on which we live. The short film “Lawn King”, made in collaboration with Nate Clarke, and actor Daniel Jones, explores the odd reality of our culture’s desire to exercise dominion on grass. It has made me laugh every time I’ve seen it.
