They always appear. To say that Lawn equals Eden is simply the same as acknowledging the fact that every Eurocentric person in America desires to possess that which they believe God denied to them because they could not resist the temptation of committing an original sin. It is, of course, the weed that gives the proper edge to the analogy. A weed is anything that cannot be identified as grass in the context of the perfect lawn. Weeds are ugly, misshapen creatures, as opposed to the perfectly ordered varieties of grass that were invented and bred by the agricultural extension services of land-grant universities in every corner of America, which intrude on the perfect garden by thrusting their unsightly heads through the perfectly ordered universe of the contemporary culture of the suburbanites' lawn.
Weeds are, of course, when compared to grass, the plant world's version of the other .
This response to difference, to the other , in Eurocentric discourse and life is so ingrained, so deeply embedded, in the consciousness of people who embrace it that it surfaces without question, without ambiguity, without any doubt surrounding its desirability as social practice, in television commercials meant to sell weed-killers to weekend suburban gardeners. One can always argue, of course, that the methods employed by a major chemical company to sell its products cannot be used to exemplify the way society as a whole relates to difference, to the other , in normal contexts of social exchange. There are no fences, no walls, no razor-wire, keeping them in those places where they freely choose to live. The most insidious forms of racial prejudice are the kinds that are the most common, the ones that spring to mind without effort, the ones that are expressed thoughtlessly, the ones that seem only natural because they exist at the deepest levels of cultural practice and societal experience. Yep, right here and other quirky reference materials to bring some lightness to and shed some light on the intriguing and complex calendar of the Maya.