By Brandon Durham
I have always enjoyed mowing. My yard is much smaller than the 5 acres I grew up on, so when spring comes it doesn’t take long to cut. The street out front is split by a raised median that is also part of my responsibility to maintain. What is striking about this strip is that as you go along the length of it, you can see how each house has influenced it. Odd trees, old and new. Patches of pampas grass. Evidence of abandoned excavation. The lawn forms a sort of misshapen “stairs” where cut and level grass meets tall, neglected sections, and this goes on all along the median. Tall, cut, tall, overgrown, cut on one side, cut, trees, cut, cut on the other side, overgrown...all the way down the street.
Mowing
One day while at work, I knew I would be mowing and thought to myself, “I sit a lot and I could use the exercise. Just mow the whole median too.” A little over halfway done, people began to notice. Some offered simple thanks, others offered money which I declined in spite of their tenaciousness. One woman remarked from her porch that I had mowed the whole thing and was impressed. I spoke with her briefly and she explained that she couldn’t get her broken mower working. After I wrapped up for the night, it occurred to me that I could try to fix it for her, but I didn’t think to ask. After work the next day I stopped by again and offered to help. She now has a working mower, and it only took a few small machine screws. It was a simple problem I knew I could easily solve, removing the burden from her.
This neighborhood is different than where I grew up. There, I was used to cars flying down a county highway, the seasonal farm implement, the calm, distant train horn, trees and crops in the breeze, frogs calling in the night, the pool pump humming low. Horses in the pastures surrounding the yard, and the sound of shots during hunting season. Here, it’s taken me a while to acclimate to a new soundtrack: Honking, people walking right by the windows, frequent cars speeding by loudly, lots of neighborhood cats, and of course the sirens of emergency vehicles.
In-passing
Shortly after moving in, I introduced myself to my neighbor to the south, Jeanette. We share a small patch of grass between our houses instead of a fence. A few short exchanges of greetings in passing became longer conversations. Soon we began to rely on each other for goings on in the area. After one conversation I pointed out that her gutters were growing trees. When I offered to clear them out, she was hesitant. The last person she hired for the job didn’t even start the work, she explained. I told her no problem and proved myself to her by doing a respectable job. I continue to lend a hand as I am able; mostly mowing and taking the trash to the curb. It’s a good feeling knowing she is more at ease with these things being done.
I see the “grass stairs” of the median on my street as an analogy for the sort of neighborliness I believe is needed more within communities. Some are only mowing “their half” and others are too busy to get to it. Some areas are under excavation and impossible to deal with. Some have not tended to it at all, and others have carefully maintained theirs.
Building Trust
I found that in the year and a half of residing here, simply offering my time, just a little more than usual, and using that to help others—specifically my neighbors—the benefits domino and the community strengthens , even if slowly at first, in ways that are invisible to me. Another neighbor recently mentioned trimming their pampas grass so I will be helping with that, and I am sure as I introduce myself to others, I will find more people I can help.
I will conclude with this; In this increasingly connected world I feel some of the most powerful action we can take is not dwelling on discussions of the wider world, although that is important too, but rather helping those in our immediate area when we can. Is it not conflicting to have empathy for those across the ocean but ignore your neighbor? I say reach out to those neighbors, be they bitter or standoffish, rich or poor. Yes, even the ones who you don’t get along with. Show them the same compassion, unyielding. Build trust and start communication. Be a force for good and offer it to others when you can. In my humble opinion, this is a powerful, fulfilling, and effective grassroots movement.
When he is not mowing, Brandon is the multimedia designer for the Dominican Sisters. He values neighborliness and service.
