Relative Something

If ever there was a device appropriate for use in treating individuals suffering from extremes of perfectionism, I believe the reel mower admirably qualifies. It’s that time of year again: time to mow lawn grass. Even though there is NHL playoff hockey on television, the grass demands attention. The timing of the effort was precise. I waited just long enough that the strange hot spell that blew in with 40 mile-per-hour gusts of wind and temperatures in the mid 90° (F) range, has moved on and left us in the comfortable 70s, and got it done before the arrival of our early Memorial Day weekend.

As much as I value the aesthetic attraction of cleanly cut grass, my priorities fall more along the lines of scorn for the whole idea of lawn grass. In my mind, it is an environmental atrocity. Since we cut the blades of the plant, it never gets a full opportunity to live a normal life and we need to feed it and water it. It ends up requiring more energy than it is able to give back. That imbalance is exacerbated by the polluting machines that are used to mow.

As much as I would like to claim that my decision to switch to using an entirely human-powered reel mower to do our cutting was all about saving the planet, that would be a deviation from my normal brutal honesty. There was definitely some problem solving behind it, but it had more to do with a resistance toward having to buy and store fuel, and my shortcomings relating to small gas engines. The reel mower was my solution. I fell in love right away. Most of all, I enjoyed the immediate reward of the general quiet of mowing, as compared to using a power mower, and the total silence whenever I just stop pushing. What a pleasant experience the chore becomes in comparison.

But it comes with a sacrifice. It is nearly impossible to cut every last blade. I’ve tried a lot of variations of technique and no matter what I have done, the result continues to best be compared with the look of a bad haircut. However, in an ongoing lesson for my strong tendency toward perfectionism, I find that it pretty much always looks just fine from a distance. Given that I didn’t burn any fossil fuels and got some healthy exercise while doing it, I’d say it looks GREAT! What I’ve come to call, “perfect enough.”

And in a stroke of perfect timing, I was done in time to get in and witness the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin perform his no-look backhand shot for a goal and for a hat-trick, too! The scene, with his parents in the crowd, teary eyed dad grabbing and kissing his mom’s cheek as the image was displayed on the big screen at the rink, causing the crowd to roar with even more energy, …it was special. More than perfect enough.