Make America Rake Again

 

The other day I was helping a friend of mine rake his lawn. We had put it off because life had gotten crazy and schedules just weren’t matching up, but it was important to get the job done before the snow fell or it would kill the grass. So there we were, the day after the 2020 presidential election, raking the mountains of leaves that had piled up. Some of the trees were still green, so we knew we would probably have to do it again, but it would make the job much easier if we got it started now.

As we raked we were discussing politics (it was the day after the election, what else would we be talking about?) and suddenly he gets this huge smile on his face like he’d thought of something really cleaver and goes “You know what we’re doing? We’re making America Great Again,” I looked at him skeptically, trying to figure out what he meant by that, all we were doing was raking his lawn, “by raking?” I asked with a laugh “Make America Rake Again,” I joked. He informed me that if one of the candidates had that slogan he’d definitely vote for them.

It was just a joke, a play on the already used slogan, but as I raked I started thinking about it. Make America Rake Again… What would a slogan like that actually mean? Well, it would mean taking on the work yourself. It takes the pressure off of the government to do the work and literally puts it on the American people, in my opinion, just as it should be. The government is there to protect, not to live our lives for us. Not to clean up our lawn or take out the trash. Not to make our life easier, just make our life safer. We need to put in the work ourselves to make the country we want to live in. And part of that is electing leaders who we believe will hold those same values, but that is certainly not all of it.

Another thought that came to mind is that, while it’s important to look at the big picture and want to see change all throughout the country, or even just your state, where it starts is right where you are. It starts in your own neighborhood, your own town, your own yard. As we raked and mowed the lawn we watched as at least three other people followed suit. They saw us taking care of our own little piece of the country and decided it might be a good idea to take care of their own. That happens with everything. You give someone a smile, they are bound to see it and smile at someone else. You’re mean to someone, they will likely then take out that hurt on someone else. The more good and hard work we put into the world, the more it spreads.

And the job is never over! The slogan doesn’t end at the end of the election, it has to continue. We have to keep working to keep our country free (literally, and of leaves) and beautiful. More leaves will fall and we’ll have to clean them up all over again, but the job is easier if you keep doing a little over time rather than all at once. And if we don’t clean up those dead leaves, just let them keep piling up, then the grass and plants beneath them will suffocate, causing death and decay. If we let the problems sit around, waiting for someone else (the government) to deal with them, we will just end up buried beneath the leaves.

“So what’s your health plan?” he asks after we’ve amused ourselves with this hypothetical presidential run for a while. “Well, if people are raking then they’re healthy” I say, stating the obvious first. If you are taking time to literally rake, aka exercise, then you will be healthier. And if you’re cleaning up your piece of the world, you’ll feel better. And if you’re letting that light spread, you will feel better mentally too. Getting back to work and having a purpose makes all the difference in living a healthy lifestyle.

We can’t expect other people, the government, our president, to do it for us. We’ve got to rake our own lawns, take care of our own bodies, our own families, our own space, and our own communities. The desire to do good for ourselves and those around us will spread and soon our country will grow and flourish, little by little. We’ll clean up the dead leaves and make way for the new growth. So go Make America Rake Again. It’s time to take the cleanliness of our country into our own hands.