Lawns are a ubiquitous part of our culture, and lawn-care equally so. It is simply expected that a house will have a lush carpet of grass around it, and equally expected that the grass will be meticulously groomed and even watered to match our definition of how it should look; thick, green, trimmed, and completely free of other plants. But how many have really thought about what the cost of a lawn is, individually or collectively? When you think about all the lawns in America alone, and cost in water, fuel, and time to keep them perfectly verdant, it starts to be staggering.

According to an article on the website of Backyard Nature, as of 2001 there were 27.6 million acres of turf grass in the united states. A little looking on the always-accurate source known as ‘Google’ tells me that a reasonably generous estimate would be that half a gallon of gasoline is used per acre to mow a lawn, and personal experience says that lawns should be mowed about once a week. There are 52 weeks in a year, give or take, but we’ll cut it in half due to seasonal changes keeping the lawn down for part of the year. 27.6 million acres times half a gallon per acre times 26 weeks comes to 358.8 million gallons of gasoline burnt keeping lawns short, per year, just in the united states. Certainly these numbers are not totally accurate, but they give you an idea of the scale, particularly when you consider three dollar gasoline, which brings you to over a billion dollars.

Even better is the practice of watering a lawn. As growing populations squabble over shared water supplies, our nation dumps considerable water on its lawns. The lawns consequently grow faster and need to be cut sooner, and the water uses up it’s own energy in the collection, filtering, and pumping; energy that is spent effectively so we can mow the lawn sooner, spending again more energy. Fertilization has much the same effect as well. And to what end? Certainly there is something to be said for safety. Animals or forgotten objects can lurk, hidden in long grass, as can pests like ticks, but is it really necessary to grown the lawns as religiously as is the norm? Surely you could knock them down every few weeks, when they get up to a dangerous length, while not encouraging the growth, and still save considerably. There are those who would baulk at the idea of the carefully manicured lawns of the nation being allowed to go wild, as we become increasingly aware of our energy needs, I believe we really need to reexamine rote habits such as this.

Paths to Eat. Eat The Path. These look like nonsense at first glance, a meaningless jumble of words. Yet further reflection begins to peel back a deeper symbolism. Everyone eats, or they die. Our lives are paths, and we eat our way through them. I am telling the tale of the paths I take each day. Or perhaps my words are the paths, a long strip of letters that you eat with your eyes and digest with your mind.

Hmm. I like that one.

The truth of the matter is that Eat the Path is a name I picked up from a lovely old game series called Marathon, which has been made free by the original developers. In case you’re not familiar with them, the games contains many ‘terminals’ full of text that can be read throughout the game to reveal more of the story and setting. One such terminal, introducing the tricky level entitled Eat the Path, caught my imagination and didn’t let go. You can read the full text online, or play through the series and get it in full context.

So while I gnaw away at the path of my life, I’ll lay down this little road of words for you to digest, if you find it interesting. I’ll likely be talking about culture in general, frequently videogames in specific, neat science, random musings, college complaints, and whatever happens to annoy me enough to provoke a decent sized rant. I’m sure there are many other things that have slipped my mind. Hope you stick around, and I’ll try to do the same.