Circumstances Provide outcomes

Clinton Bronder

Subject: Circumstances Provide outcomes

Class reading: Sacred and Profane Beauty, Part 3

February 24^th, 2011

In part three of Sacred and Profane Beauty, a German proverb is quoted “If there’s no song while it’s brewing, the beer won’t be good.” Obviously, this taken literally, does not carry much weight, the odds that one beer will taste better because the brewers were singing a jaunty tune seems irrational, but the underlying message is loud and clear. If we are to think of everything we do as a chore, a job, there is no way we can take pride in the outcome. I know that when my mom tells me to go outside in the 90+ degree heat and mow the lawn I think of it as a chore, because it is, it is literally on my chore list. When I get back inside and I flop on the couch, hot and sweaty, I’m irritated that I just spent over an hour slaving away in the sun. Later that day when my mom returns from work she comments on how mice the mowed yard makes the house look and instead of being proud, I ask what’s for dinner. Sometimes, though, when my mom tells me to mow the lawn, and I look outside, see the beautiful green lawn that I grew up on, from wiffle ball with my brother when I was younger, to a gourmet brie cheese and crackers picnic with my friends, I am eager to go outside and work on it. I will pour myself a glass of lemonade and set up my speakers, and actually enjoy my time outside working on the yard. When I finish this time, instead of feeling like I’ve wasted time and energy, I am proud of the outcome, and eager for my mom to come home and notice it. There is no physical difference in how the lawn appears, its just as clean and green as it was when I mowed it a week earlier, but this time it looks better.