Maybe It Is Easy Being Green

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how a task as simple as trying to maintain a beautiful neighborhood can become political.  Since that time, we have had two straight weeks of rainy weekdays and sunny weekends. 

This change in the weather has led to a boom in GDP (Green, Dense Plantlife) growth in our neighborhood.  With the exception of the 99%'ers and the Freemarket Proponents, who are still sporting spotty lawns, everyones lawn is dense and green.  This has led me to form another conclusion based on this experience.  It is:

"What you do matters very little, so long as you do something.  What matters the most is the cyclical nature of the environment that you are in."



Authors Note: I still don't understand why the couple I refer to as "the Crazies" are mad at me.  I simply offered to fertilize their lawn for them with 100%, all-natural fertilizer that is manufactured by the Schmidtberg household.  Seemed like a win-win to me since I was offering them a huge discount to support a local entrepreneur. 

It's Not Easy Being Green

A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with my father and he started to pontificate about his views on the world.  One of the things that he said that really struck me is paraphrased below.

“When you get enough people involved in working towards a common goal, things inevitably become political.”

At the time, I was very skeptical of this claim.  Since then, I have witnessed an example of how even the most trivial or innocent of endeavors can become political.  This example proves the wisdom in my father’s statement and is described below.

The Example:

Three years ago, my wife and I moved into a new neighborhood.  This neighborhood is full of new construction houses and, at the time, we were the first house on our street.  The street has since been fully populated with younger, middle-class couples like us. 

Also like us, they are first time home buyers who are eager to tackle the challenge of taking care of their house, lawn, and the overall appearance of the street.  This is the common goal: for each family to individually have a beautiful, green lawn and for the street to be something we are all proud of.

Year # 1:

During the first summer, there were three families on our street.  Times were simple back then.  The lawns had all been freshly planted and we received more than our fair share of rain during the spring.  This led to the lawns growing thick and green very quickly. 

There was also a landscaping company that was employed by the neighborhood developer who was making weekly trips to our street as new houses were built.  He offered us all a huge discount for a fertilization and irrigation package, which we all took.

That summer, the grass was green and the landscaping bills cheap.  Life was simple and that was a good thing.

Year #2:

Things started to change during year #2.  First of all, the number of occupied houses on the street doubled to six.  Many of the new occupants decided to go with different landscaping companies or to fertilize their own lawns.  In addition, the landscaping company used in year #1 had been fired by the developer and was no longer in the area.  These two factors combined to drive up the cost for fertilization treatments for the original three families.

Year #2 was also one of the hottest and driest summers in recent memory.  A water ban was put into effect by the town and many people’s lawns dried out by the end of the summer.  This led to even more discontent and people started developing their own theories on how to maintain a healthy lawn.

By the end of the year, lawns were brown, landscaping and water bills were heavy, and everyone was frustrated.  Life was no longer quite so good or simple.

Year #3:

It is now year #3 and the street is fully developed and occupied.  This has doubled the amount of stakeholders yet again to twelve.  Year #3 has also started off with terrible weather for lawns: drought like conditions for three weeks followed by a full week of rain but no sun.

Like the US economy, the GDP (Green, Dense Plantlife) growth for our street is stagnant.  Everyone is starting to panic and, once again just like the US economy, political factions have formed based on their proposed solution to the group’s failure to achieve its collective goal.  They are as follows:

On the Left:

·         The Greens, who champion going all organic with their fertilizer.
·         The Crazies, who are a sub-set of the Greens.  They have started buying certified 100% all-natural fertilizer that is “manufactured” by the Milwaukee Metropolitian Sewerage District.  
·         The 99%’ers, who blame the greedy developer for taking advantage of us and installing sub-par grass and are demanding that he pay to have it fixed.
·         The Stimulus Packagers, who are throwing money at every potential solution offered.

On the Right:

·         The Free Market Proponents, who point out that green grass grows just fine on its own, so why should they waste good money watering or fertilizing it?
·         The 1%’ers, who have the greenest lawn on the street.  They hire their own high end landscaping company to water, fertilize, and cut their lawn every week but refuse to share the name of the company or its pricing with anyone else.
·         The Spending Cutters, who swear that landscaping companies are horribly inefficient and that they can do everything cheaper by themselves.

Conclusion:

As you can see, the simple challenge of creating a street of beautiful, green lawns has become as fragmented as the US political system.  Turns out my father was right after all, get enough people involved in something and it is bound to become messy.