So I just got in from cutting the lawn–cutting the lawn under the blazing, life-sapping, blinding Georgia sun. Sweat dripping down my face, a general feverish heat clinging to my skin. But hey, now I have shorter grass. And there was no one to stop me going out to do so. You see, Eugie didn’t care about lawns. At all. Not a bit. Short grass, tall grass, poison ivy, triffids, it was all the same to her. As long as it stayed outside, it could be a jungle or a desert, she didn’t care.
She did care about me going out and working in the lawn, or better stated, she cared that I not do so. She cared because it was unpleasant, and she didn’t want me doing things that were unpleasant, and because physical labor in such heat was unhealthy. My health and happiness, those were things she cared about.
Now I didn’t disagree with her in any way. I am sure that someone, somewhere, can come up with a psychological explanation for people wishing to have the fronts of their homes covered by a one inch green carpet of living symmetry–something about people’s inability to process anything different I suppose–but I haven’t heard it yet. So I was in complete agreement with Eugie, yet I would still attempt to go out and cut the lawn. This was not for me, or her, but because of the bizarre organization that people happily forfeit their freedom to: The Home Owners Association. I didn’t want trouble from these forces from the twisted inferno. So, from time to time I’d put on my ripped pants and an old t-shirt and head toward the door, and hear:
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to cut the lawn?”
“No.”
“But it’s getting like, a foot long.”
“It’s too hot. And that’s too much work. It could make you sick. It’s not good for you and I want you healthy. Come sit with me on the couch.”
“The HOA is going to freak.”
“Fuck them. What are they going to do? They can put a lien on the house, which will matter when we want to sell the house. But we’re never selling the house. So, fuck them. Come sit with me.”
And I would. And that would be that. And that is one of the ways Eugie was spectacular.