Keeping Up With the Joneses

I mowed the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street in front of our house today. After I did it, I wondered, Did I do that for me or for the people across the street?

Just when I think I’m immune to keeping up with the Joneses, I wonder something like that. Is that what home ownership does to you?

I also mowed the neighbor’s strip of grass for them (I asked first), perhaps to prove to myself that I am a good person in spite of being a conflicted keeping-up type of person.

I did not sweep up or blow away the extraneous clippings. So there. I am still (slightly) subversive.

Photo by ping lee on Unsplash