Walking home from work today I saw an old man mowing the lawn at a fundamentalist church.
The grounds must be at least half an acre and he was using a small mower to cut long, wet grass.
There is no way he would have got more than a third done before it was dark. The mower’s engine kept dying as he pushed it through the long grass.
I’m often contemplative while walking and this presented a few questions.
Q)Was the man foolish?
A) Yes, but maybe he had no other choice. I’ve been silently complaining about that long grass for a week or so now and perhaps he was told to clean it up. The part of my brain that controls order and efficiency dislikes wasted endeavor.
Q) Was there a better way?
A) Probably. Surely someone in the church community has a ride-on mower. If not, he could have appealed for public help or asked a commercial operator to do the job at a reduced price. Maybe the council would do it for nothing.
Q) Was it any of my business?
A) Not really, except I felt frustrated hearing his mower conk out and seeing how much more lawn he still had to cut.
Q) Would I have cared if it had been a sports ground or a vacant block instead of a church?
A) No. I figured they would have been doing it by choice in those cases, or as a matter of personal responsibility with a vacant block. I gained the impression this old man felt a collective responsibility, which made the scene almost pathetic.
Q) Should I have offered to assist?
A) I don’t know the answer to this. My conscience said yes, but there’s nothing practical I could have done. My mower is no bigger than his and I wouldn’t like to take on a futile task that should be someone’s responsibility (in the church). But I didn’t like seeing the old man struggle.
These articles might be of interest:
I think you feel an obligation to attend to your empathy instinct to have unconditional positive regard for another human being.
This is a good sign! you have been given and know how to use the basic skills to care for another.
However, although you have expressed a concern about the man mowing, your need to not want to get involved with anything that would come at personal cost or effort, makes you human Michael. I imagine Freud would be over the moon psycho-analysing this scenario….your mum is probably to blame for you being anally retentive?
I left myself open to those comments, I suppose, Ebony.
I might invite you to start an Agony Aunt column for the paper, where you can answer moral questions and give life coaching.
Dear Ebony … has a certain ring about it.