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Dandelions

Last fall we bought a new home for our expanding family. One of the most exciting features of this property was a large backyard. I only had to cut the grass twice with my non-propelled push mower before winter set in, but it was a enough of a taste to make me realize how large of a weekly chore this was going to be come springtime. I decided to suck it up and do my best to give the kids a great lawn to play on for years to come. We had a few nice days in April and before I could even get the mower out of the garage, we had more dandelions than you could imagine. Noticing that my neighbors didn't have a single dandelion to rival the several hundred I was growing, I went right to the store and bought the four step fertilizer program, doubling up on the weed control step, just to be safe. The results were pretty good, leaving a just a handful of dandelions for my wife and I to pick by hand as to avoid being the worst yard in the neighborhood. Spring has been very pleasant and we have spent a good portion of time in the yard. While outside I couldn't help but notice that most of my neighbors have a lawn service and several even have Chemlawn guys come out to do their fertilizing. While their lawns are nicer and greener than mine, I also noticed something else about these pristine yards. No one was in them. All of these perfect yards, and noone enjoying them. Now one can speculate that maybe these people are career minded workaholics logging 70-80 hours a week at the office. Maybe they travel a lot and are never home to enjoy the fruits of their labor. As I was contemplating this very riddle, something amazing happened, I noticed my baby girl and my son each deliver a bouquet of dandelions to their mom. They were so proud of their gift as my wife sincerely thanked them for brightening her day. I began to realize that I did the same thing when I was a kid. I can remember going out to our tiny Chicago yard in early spring and searching as hard as a could to find a handful of dandelions to deliver to my mom. I let the nostalgia of this memory wash over me as I remembered all of the great times we had growing up and playing in a backyard that was nothing more than a small patch of grass you could mow in less than three minutes. As I recalled memory after memory, I could only remember the good times with family and friends and for the life of me, I never recall stopping to critique the quality of our childhood lawn. We were happy, and that was enough. I was a little sad to admit that maybe I had become (like most of my generation), caught up in the acquisition of material things by which we measure and judge each other. Who has the biggest house, best cars, smartest kids or even the greenest grass? Does it matter? Are we any happier? I began to feel bad about killing most of the dandelions. Of course I want my kids to have the best of everything, but more than that, I want them to have perspective. I want them to be able to be happy with what they have, to find joy in the simple things, in short, I want them to love dandelions. Maybe that is the lesson, maybe the best lives are those with challenges, the good times, made more special because we can compare them to the bad times, the laughter made sweeter by the shedding of tears. Perhaps after all, the best yards are the ones sprinkled with little yellow flowers to contrast and compliment the green grass.

Learn more about this author, Daniel Vincent.
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