My Buddy (the libertarian) weighed in on the last post:
Harry:
But didn’t Camus write about this in The Myth of Sisyphus? Jeez. If people aren’t bugged by long hair, they get bugged by high tangles of nondescript vegetation?
[Your Buddy]
Thirteen years ago when I noted this lawn I felt a little guilty doing it. America has been cursed with lawn perfectionism for a century and its led to a huge laying on of fertilizer causing much environmental damage. That said Kriss’s lawn is a wonder to behold. Its not a lawn that promotes butterflies and native plants that I can see. It looks a bit like a lawn in a house that is tax forfeit.
I made my comment in 2002 more to twit the unions who were welcoming a Green Party candidate into their fold. I was still a Republican thirteen years ago. I’ve met Kriss at political gatherings and I’ve got to say her eccentricities, gentle as they are, did not remind me of Henry David Thoreau. Neglect is not the same as benign neglect. Sometimes its just neglect.
Thirteen years ago a neighbor complained to me bitterly about her yard. This election season another has gone a step further and written a letter to the editor about it. One of the hallmarks of a good city councilor is heeding the concerns of fellow citizens not thumbing their noses at their conformity.
And yet, thumbing one’s nose at ill considered conformity can be a mark of a thoughtful and even courageous person. It will be interesting to see if Kriss rises to the occasion as she pushes her mossy boulder up the campaign trail to the City Council.
