Lawns.

Lawn-care.

Grass. Lawn mowers. Hedge trimmers. Clippers. Edgers. Leaf blowers. Mulchers. Seeders. Seed. Fertilizer. Sod. Perennials. Flamingos.

Some folks spend incredible amounts to get their lawn looking like the crewcut of a green US Marine. Tight. Crisp. My neighbors, for example.

They go about it in the strangest way, cutting the grass before it's had a chance to go to seed, then fretting over the holes and dead spots. Filling them with seed and fertilizer. Watering twice a day on a timer. Installing underground watering systems that invariably burst a pipe or joint and need repair. They mow religiously every week, then edge, then trim the shrubs, then weed the flower beds. Or, alternately, they pay a team of landscapers to do it for them.

They get new mulch. Which invites termites. Which eat their home.

In the fall they rake and mulch. Or just cut the damned trees down. Then complain when their yard burns under the sun in the summer - as they do when the birds and bats aren't around to help out with the bugs.

I'm not saying a well-manicured lawn isn't appealing. Order (or the appearance of order) is always interpreted as "beauty" by the human brain. It's instinctive. Disorder means danger.

However, there are more than one kinds of order.

There are very elegant types of ground clover that grow to a certain height, and never beyond, that are soft to the touch, and never need mowing. (see here - http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Clover-Lawn)

What would you do with all of that time? And money? And effort?

As a side note, you could probably plant a nice vegetable garden. Using cumulatively less (over the course of a season of lawn-mowing) time effort and money, and get a nice little crop of fresh veggies to boot.

Not a sermon, just a thought.