Beyond the Margin

By Joe Spear

Zen and the art of lawn maintenance

With the lazy days of summer, a man’s mind tends to wander.

The tedium of lawn maintenance and lawn equipment maintenance begs for a deeper meaning.

Remembering a book I read in college, but couldn’t figure out what the author was trying to say, I figured I’d Google: “What was Robert Pirsig trying to say in his book: ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’?”

Google, as it often does, delivered:

“Pirsig is capable of seeing the beauty of technology and feels good about mechanical work, where the goal is ‘to achieve an inner peace of mind.’ The book demonstrates that motorcycle maintenance may be dull and tedious drudgery or an enjoyable and pleasurable pastime, depending on attitude.”

Motorcycles. Rebels without causes.

And so I was on a mission to find the gestalt of green grass and the solace of summer lawn care.

The first challenge was a weed whip that wasn’t whipping. The Black and Decker model LST 220 unit was nicely displayed in the big-box store where I bought it. The orange and black design with a swale-shaped whip guard and the adjustable, retractable handle sold me.

But weed whips can only create so much happiness. When the 0.65inch blue cutting line runs out, the weed whip hisses like a rattler snake, and you know you will be faced with the tedium of all tedium in lawn maintenance: rolling more line onto the spool of the feed mechanism.

This is not only the most tedious of tedious tasks, it takes manual dexterity that left my hands years ago. There was no need to read the instructions on how to wind a weed whip and which way to go. You’ve got a 50-50 chance right?

And you only realize you have wound it the wrong way due to the arrow pointing the other way on the spindle, and the fact that the weed whip discharges the line and leaves 6-inch pieces at every turn of the switch.

I figure I don’t have enough Zen, so I turn to Pirsig for inspiration.

From the explanation of the book which, Wikipedia notes, could be challenged if not further verified with facts, we have:

“In an example of the classical approach, the narrator explains that one must pay continual attention: when the narrator and his friends come into Miles City, Montana he notices the engine running roughly, a possible indication that the fuel/ air mixture is too rich. The next day he is thinking of this as he is going through his ritual to adjust the jets on his motorcycle’s carburetor. During the adjustment, he notes that both spark plugs are black, confirming a rich mixture. He recognizes that the higher elevation is causing the engine to run rich. The narrator rectifies this by installing new jets and adjusting the valves, and the engine runs well again.”

Inspiration. I go to the guy store and buy a pre-rolled weed whip spindle. Click it into place. We’re good. It’s not blue. It’s green, a happier color.

But the whole “continual attention” thing is intriguing if not simultaneously annoying, and I turn to the art of trimming around trees with the weed whip.

While the Black Decker LST 220 has plenty of vertical reach, it falls short of the 22.5- to 45-degree angle I need to get under Scotch pine trees that have a diameter of about 12 feet.

Paying “continual attention” to all the tools at my disposal, I notice the push lawnmower, a Craftsman 130cc with a real carburetor. It has a handle-to-cutting surface angle that will be much more suitable for getting under that pine tree. A near perfect 45 degrees.

Ah. Zen. This continual attention stuff is getting to me.

More from Wiki on Zen and the pull between the detailed-oriented person and the “romantic” person.

“He understands that technology, and the “dehumanized world” it carries with it, appears ugly and repulsive to a romantic person. He knows that such persons are determined to shoehorn all of life’s experience into the romantic view.”

But we know we’re headed in the right direction taking a cue from Pirsig. Amazon, for example, thinks his work is just splendid describing his book.

“One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig’s ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live … and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: A story of love and fear — of growth, discovery, and acceptance — that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life’s fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence … and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.”

The push mower indeed propelled me forward to the task of trimming under the pines. I pondered how one can achieve Zen-like feeling in the moment with the tedious task of lawn maintenance.

The weed whip whips. The mower glides flawlessly and the angles of the sun, the trim and the world are in perfect alignment. Joe Spear is editor of

Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.