To Rake or Not to Rake

The trees in my yard have just a few tenacious leaves left on their

branches. A terrible windstorm swept through our area a few days

ago and the end result is naked trees. A yard blanketed with leaves

is such a beautiful sight, I plan to keep it like this for some time.

While I do like to keep my yard clean and tidy, I wasn't overly

concerned with mowing my lawn and I'm not overly concerned

with raking the leaves. Not everyone holds this easygoing attitude,

I got a lot of "when are you going to mow that jungle" comments

in the summer. It wasn't that I was lazy and didn't want to mow my

lawn, but receiving comments didn't make me want to mow the

lawn any more than before.  It may come across as a stubborn

stance, but my mind turns to thoughts of conformity. Mowing or

raking because of fear of being ostracized or called out by my

neighbours would be conforming. Now, if I mowed or raked due

to my own desire to have a manicured lawn, well then, that would

not be conforming. 

I remember reading about this study done on conformity in my

psychology textbook back in university.  The test subject would

be with a group of people who were in on the study. A question

was asked with a very obvious correct answer.  The group would

all answer incorrectly, much to the surprise of the test subject.

The larger the group, and therefore a larger amount of people

answering incorrectly, the more likely it was that the test subject

would also answer incorrectly. People have a tendency to conform

even when they know they are right. On a good note though, even

if just one person from the group answers with the correct response,

the test subject is more likely to not conform to the wrong answer

and instead answers correctly. Wasn't a very brave test group, I say.

And apparently it's better for your lawn if you don't take all the

leaves up. That seems to make a whole lot of sense too when you

consider the world seems to take care of herself quite fine without

humans touching this and that. And this is what happens when you

let your thoughts run wild. All this has much to do with nothing. 

Thrifted: Dress

Thrifted: Vest

Thrifted: Belt

Thrifted: Moccasins