"The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill". I know it's not healthy to read too much into sayings, but I can't help it. My main problem with this expression is that the grasses' greenness appears to be a judge of quality. So in other words, the greener the grass gets, the better it gets. Other than the difficulty to judge this objectively (what's greener, a leef or some grass?), it also beggars the question, why? Who is it that wants greeer grass? Thicker grass? Perhaps? More spring grass? Certainly? But greener? Who exactly has this as a requirement for their grass? It strikes me as odd, and as it is a saying used o frequently, I think there should be some kind of organisation- some sort of quality control to prevent inferior sayings from being used (I originally wrote inferior grass there, which would be a completely different discussion).
Another thing that gets me is signs telling me to keep off the grass. Huh? What exactly did you put the grass there for? If you wanted something nice, why didn't you grow flowers or something? Grass is not made for looking at. Actually, it's not made for anything, but if I was going to assign a grand purpose to grass, it would be to be walked on and eaten (by cattle. And sometimes small children). Thats surely what we should use grass for. Stupid signs.
2 Comments:
I think that greener grass is more beneficial as food for ungulates, and hence the expression.
In Saskatchewan, grass is put there so the dirt doesn't blow away. And it's seldom green.
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