Page 117 - ECOlogic Book

Lawn Sculpting 141

(Summer, 1997)

I have had great joy
in forming simple compositions
with this living green.
Jens Jensen, Siftings

Regrets
Wittingly or unwittingly, we’ve been at war with the natural world. On the

one hand, we’ve won the war. On the other hand, we’re beginning to
comprehend the pervasive and insidious ways this mutually assured
destruction may lead to our own defeat. If other species crash, unraveling
the web of life, we’ll crash as well. Our demise will be traceable to our own
enthusiasm in our war against the natural world. What can we tell our
children? How can we explain this to our grandchildren? How can we face
them?

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The statement is full of regret and

testimony to shortsightedness. Our culture has made many mistakes and the
lawn is only one of them. We can assuage our guilt somewhat by
understanding that we didn’t know any better. But by what excuse can we
now continue in these destructive habits?

There may have been a time when the war with nature was justified, when
settlers in the New World had to defend themselves against predators and
carve out places to grow food in a land covered with vast forests. But that
war, the war with nature is over. We won. And now nature lies vanquished

at our feet. James Hillman reminds us that “Nature today is on dialysis,
slowly expiring, kept alive only by advanced technology,” 142 We cannot

141 Author’s note: a shortened version of this story first appeared in ECOlogic and was then elaborated for
publication in my 2009 book, Lawn Wars: The Struggle For a New Lawn Ethic, where it appears as Chapter 2.

142 Hillman, James, “The Practice of Beauty,” in Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetics,
Ed: Bill Beckley, with David Shapiro, (Allworth Press, New York, NY, 1998, p. 264).

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