The dictionary lists the word conscious as being aware, awake to one’s surroundings. I have noted with special interest comments from those in our armed forces who have returned from Iraq commenting on the surroundings. Many note how much they missed “green grass” and how green grass is so much better than “dirt and rocks.” We’ve missed “green grass” here at home too for the past 5 months. Snow and ice have replaced turf, and grass is something many take for granted until it’s gone. At that point you realize the lawn is part of our culture, a way of life, our surroundings. When grass is missing for some during a tour of duty serving our country, or simply and less importantly covered by snow for 5 straight months, you’re conscious of how much you enjoy the green green grass of home.
We can thank the British for our consciousness of the lawn and for making it a way of life. Across England lawns were a focus of great gardens and for their “sport” like cricket, croquet, bowls and of course soccer and rugby. I know a fine young man from England who refers to my lawn as a “pitch.” It was green pitch that followed the English around the world, the Union Jack meant “lawn and order” to our surroundings. Fortunately when the upstart colonists threw their tea overboard in protest, they did not abandon their lawns in protest. Instead Americans embraced the love of the lawn and through the years traveled at the speed of “ground” in making lawns a loved part of our home turf. It was an Englishman who invented the helical bladed lawnmower from what I’ve read, again the British on the “cutting hedge.” It was the British (Green coats, not Red coats) who “planted” the seed of conscious that lives today as the green green grass of home.
