I noticed for the first time today what happens when spring comes. Things grow. Like mad. On the way home I walked past a number of lawns that really needed to be mowed. I also noticed all the plants that were just thriving in the damp soil and bright sunshine. It smelled like life.

I most appreciate the patch of ground next to the sidewalk that sported a garden of weeds of various varieties. I appreciated the weeds for their diversity and their ravenous growth. I couldn’t help but think of my environmental science class in college and how we talked about the suburban lawn as the least diverse ecosystem on the planet. Diverse ecosystems are self-containing, while ecosystems with little or no diversity are on the brink of collapse–unless excess energy is dumped into the ecosystem. Thus fat guys pushing mowers and stretching sprinklers keep the ecosystem alive. Seems like a waste to me.

That’s the one thing I regret about college. I sold my environmental science textbook. Of all the crappy textbooks I still have, that’s the only one I’ve wanted to go back and look stuff up in.