It is a blustery November day. Gray skies, winds howling. It’s beautiful in its own way.

Outside, somewhere in the neighborhood, some has been leaf-blowing for almost three hours. Complete folly. I smile not with judgement but with a question: how is it that common sense has been so co-opted by the illusion of convenience?

The loud gas powered leaf-blower seems more convenient than raking, but it also changes the thinking about the leaves. Gone is the relation to worthwhile exercise and to the logical analysis of what days are good days to rake.

No one would rake on a day like today. The leaves would simply keep blowing away from the pile. It would be a waste of time and energy. But because the person is not raking, which would require investment in the consideration of the conditions to best accomplish the task, the person has not considered with wisdom.

Part of me is sad too. Not only for all said above, but because a leaf-blower has no relation to leaves. Relatedness is in the raking, in the muscles working, in the beauty of the colors of the leaves as one rakes. The smells, the colors, the occasional leaf that falls while raking, these things play upon our well-being us like sunlight plays on water. This is part of the reason why raking usually makes one feel good, happy with the piles, happy with the cleared grass, happy upon its completion. There seems something cast-off or throw away about a leaf-blower. Something unnatural.

It is worthwhile to process such things as convenience, and how common sense is usually thrown out the window when convenience is in the room.

Wake up. Rise up. Participate.

photo: An Autumn Walk by Wandering Soul on DeviantART