Watching the Green On the Golf Channel

Watching golf on television has to be the most abstract of occupations or pastimes. But with the recent drought here in Central Texas, I tuned in to the channel today and became enraptured at the green fields and hills. The luxurious grass, the panoramas of blue sky and green carried me away, as it never had before. I was drawn into the lush vistas and could almost feel my feet touching the blades of grass. Who cared who was playing or what was going on, I was beginning to forget the parched patches of lawn outside, which have been baking in the sun for almost two months now. I glance at a history of the lawn and find one critic applauds it as a symbol of American culture:

"Indeed, the lawn was soon to spread over the whole continent as a vast platform for the performance of democracy. Mowing, for example, turns into an important civic duty. Like more private civilizing measures such as vacuuming and shaving, it must be performed regularly to domesticate tenacious, unwanted natural encroachments."

In fact, there are some notes that indicate that the breeding of the grass seed itself is a homage to the grassy fields on golf courses and the broadcasting of golf events on television. The idea of a uniform and verdant surface of play influences the neighbors who live close to the course to excel in their own privately owned areas.

And there is even competition among home owners to see whose lawn can look the nicest. I worked at a facility years ago where the company even laid down a special green dye in the summer to create a uniform green to cover the inevitable brown spots that appeared in the hot weather.