I went home last Friday afternoon in the heat and humidity of a Kansas July. Dealing with the dizziness and migraines and the tiredness of low blood pressure had drained me like a deep crack in an old tub. While Randa finished up mowing the front yard, I lay on the couch inside, trying to block out the guilt droned along by the sound of the mower. When she came inside a half-hour later, she was almost drenched with sweat. It’s pretty challenging to come in any other way when you’ve been doing what she’d been doing.

After a shower and some rest, she headed over to WallyWorld to pick up some groceries. I sat on the couch for a while and then had an idea. If feeling tired was more due to low blood pressure than to having worked very hard, maybe elevating the blood pressure would help. I figured if it alleviated the guilt, too, that would be even better.

So, I headed outside to test out my theory on the back yard.

The thick heavy watergrass in the back yard was nearly a foot high. Just looking at it raised my blood pressure a little bit. I opened up the shed and pulled out the mower and cranked it up.

While this little mower handles a thin stand of ryegrass just fine, it is completely unsuitable for mowing thick heavy watergrass. The tiny discharge chute completely clogged up every three or four feet. Even when I tried pushing the mower forward just a few inches at a time, it still clogged up. Even when I tried mowing only a half-swath or less, it still clogged up.

If the grass had been low and dry, I would have had that back yard done in twenty minutes or less. With having to go slow, stop the mower and pull the clog out of the chute, then re-start the mower and mow another few feet, it took me nearly an hour. I was getting pretty sure Randa was going to get back home and I was going to have some ‘splaining to do.

On the other hand, the experiment had certainly raised my blood pressure! By the time I finished cleaning off the mower, I was feeling more energetic and alert. By the time Randa got back home, I was in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water. Apparently, though, I was a bit delirious by this time because I immediately went out to the car and brought in the groceries. Almost as if I was a considerate human being.

Tackling the tall grass isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially when we’re tired and grumpy but it sure makes things look better. Sometimes in life, the very thing we need in order to get over a hump or out of a slump is to do the thing we least feel like doing. You know, like helping someone else whose job is easier than ours or cleaning up a mess we didn’t make. Or forgiving someone who has deeply hurt us.

It isn’t always that critical whether we do a good thing out of guilt or love; what matters is that good gets done.

H. Arnett
7/19/16