A Young Man And His Mower In NoMi... (Summer Visitation 2009)

Photo By John Hoff


My son, who just turned 12, had never used a lawn mower before. So I figured it was about time he learned. Ah, the feeling of owning your own lawn--purchased so affordably in this amazing housing market, owned outright with no mortgage here in North Minneapolis "Divorced Daddyville"--and watching your son learn the manly skill of lawn maintenance...

At first, my son was reluctant to even approach the mower, let alone push it around.

"Are you AFRAID of the lawn mower?" I asked. "Are you afraid it will spit rocks at you, chop off your feet?"

My son nodded. He was indeed afraid of these things. How had his father KNOWN?

"Good," I told him. "You're smart enough to be afraid of the mower. NEVER lose your fear of the lawn mower. It's fear that keeps you from making a stupid mistake and hurting yourself. Lawn mowers scared the hell out of me when I was your age. But guess what? They're actually fun. You can have a good, healthy fear of the mower and still have a lot of fun with it. So let's learn about STARTING it. This one is actually very easy to start..."

In no time at all, Alex was cutting the lawn.

We'll talk about optimum grass-cutting patterns later...