Leaf Blowers: a lot of hot air

Leaf blowers. There are probably a very select few situations in which they are appropriately used. Mostly I think they serve no real purpose and just contribute to pollution, but I suppose if you had a really really large quantity of leaves in some area, they could blow the leaves together into a pile for you to rake up more easily.

Needless to say, this is not the way leaf blowers are used typically. Every morning on the walk to school there are several men blowing leaves off of the sidewalk and into the street. Over the course of the day, the cars on the street push them back onto the sidewalk, or the staff of other businesses in the area have to deal with them (often just by blowing them back).

Perhaps you know where I’m going with this…

Why should the leaf blowers care where the leaves go, as long as they aren’t on the property that pays them to get rid of the leaves? They did they job they are paid to do. Should anything else be required? A question that at some point that all individuals and groups have to ask: Why should I/we care about anyone or anything that is not directly related to me/us? (if there is such a thing...)

The leaf blower example is over simplified, but I think it goes a long way. Not caring about what happens to the leaves, as long as it isn’t your problem, is inefficient. It gives you more work (ie. you’re not really getting rid of the problem), it diminishes the value of your work, and it creates unnecessary work for other people. I wonder how often we function like this in day to day work: simply through the routine of the work, not stopping to think about its effects. There’s more to be said about why it is important for a society to feel that the work they do has value, but for now I’ll just say that even if there is no emotional or justice-related concern for what happens to those leaves or if they actually get taken care of, it is still advantageous on a personally economic (and psychological) level to care about it.

It’s one thing to spend extra time raking up leaves, but as soon as the analogy gets extended to apply to national, international (and actually even familial) policy and practice, the situation becomes more complicated. I think this is partially due to the fact that it is harder to see and feel the personal gain that comes out of caring more deeply about the welfare of others or the quality of a particular job and how it is connected to the welfare of others.

I think that scripture affirms the notion that “your welfare is found in the welfare of others,” both in Jeremiah 29, but also more widely as a general theme. (I’m going to pull a Laura and choose not to exegete that right now). I will say though that it is a pretty dramatic command to find find one's welfare in the welfare of others while you are in exile, which was the case in Jeremiah. My own opinions on how much that philosophy of welfare, in addition to the general idea of grace, should shape and influence government and policy are in constant transition. Even if I come up with an opinion, it’s hard for me to know where to begin in terms of application. In many ways, I think addressing the topic on the level of leaf blowers is more practical, and just as biblical. At least that is how my brain is wired. Where are some practical places that small adjustments in policy and practice can be rethought to improve the value of work and move towards an economy that recognizes our interrelated welfare?

*not trying to attack the guys who blow leaves, just using them as an example.