I Am Not Lawnmowerman

Growing up I was constantly assailed about the evils of pride. “Pride goeth before the fall” was often quoted to me, so much so that it is now firmly ingrained in my very being. To have pride is akin to repeating Adam's mistake all over again, that is how I grew up. Now that I can no longer claim the innocence of a child I have come to see that perhaps not all pride is evil (or perhaps I still have much to learn on the subject). Take my lawn for instance. If I had pride in my yard I would not let it be an eyesore to all my neighbors, yet because I generally have no regard or care for it I let it lapse.

Perhaps a better view is my present view. I care about my neighbors, and rather than forcing them to wince when they stroll past my yard I perform a minimum amount of maintenance. In this case I do it for them. Yet even considering this I feel that I would do better if I had pride in my work. I have pride in my writing, pride in my programming, and pride in my designing. I'm not haughty, though I am sometimes strongly confident. My pride spurs me on to do a better job than the last time. Now, at what point will I fall?

I am the kind of guy who would love to have a nice yard, and a lush garden, but I am far from the kind of guy who can or will make that dream happen. I would rather spend my time enjoying a garden than creating in, in fact I would rather spend time creating a masterpiece in a garden than creating the garden itself. I would love to lounge on a manicured lawn (sometime after allergy season) and ponder matters of pride. Maybe then I'd be able to see there is the pride that will cause you to fall, a pride that should be called haughtiness, and the pride of a job well done, the pride of a father in regards to the works of his children, and the pride of a man over the skills of his wife.