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I never expected to draw attention with the simple act of mowing my lawn. Some people are so perplexed, apparently having never seen a mower with no motor, that they will stop their vehicles to ask what I am doing.

Others have kindly offered to mow my yard for free, I suppose assuming this little old lady is simply too poor to afford a motorized lawnmower.

The truth is that with my small lot, a reel mower adds up to a lot of value, and not just in dollars saved.

In five years I’ve bought very little gasoline for yard work. About once a year, usually during spring rains, the weeds will pop up too high and thick between cutting for the reel mower to be effective, so on those rare occasions I’ll borrow a mower and repay the favor by refilling the person’s gas can.

I’m not paying anyone to mow the yard (except the season I had a broken foot), and I’m not paying for membership to a fitness center. Even in my tiny yard walking in rows to mow adds up to about 2 miles of steps. When the grass is high, I feel the arm workout too.

I can mow at any hour without the sound disturbing my neighbors, as I listen to an audiobook or podcast through earphones, without having to blast it over the sound of a motor.

I’m saving fuel, getting a workout and enjoying fiction or learning something new. For me that’s a win times three, a marvelous way to multitask.

My yard work isn’t totally power free, because I use an electric trimmer with a rechargeable battery. I like using less energy (from sources other than myself), but my commitment has limits.

I drive a relatively fuel-efficient car, but I’m not going to ditch one all together and pedal my way around Blount County.

The real test of our values is how much effort we’re willing to devote to living them.

We say we love our country and value democracy, but when it comes to actually voting, eh. The evidence that we’re committed to this relationship is lacking.

Even with a sharp increase during the 2020 presidential election, voter turnout among the voting age population in the United States falls well below other developed nations, according to the Pew Research Center. How low? In 2020, 24th among 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Pew senior writer Drew DeSilver wrote in January 2021.

That was up from 30th based on the 2016 U.S. election, according to data he cited in a Pew Research Center article in early November 2020.

Those articles looked at the voting age population, not just registered voters, noting wide variety in how places handle voter registration.

You can look at voter turnout many ways, but we don’t need to look beyond Blount County for voter apathy. Slightly more than 1 in 10 registered voters cast ballots in our May 3 primary.

Currently we’re in the early voting period for the Aug. 4 state primary and local general elections, in which 59 offices are on the ballot. You have until the end of this week to vote early, and then the option to actually show up on Election Day next week.

I don’t care how many days you fly a flag in front of your home or how many fireworks you set off on July 4. If you value democracy, show it by participating, putting in just a little effort.

If you really care about the issues, take the time to learn about the individual candidates. If you don’t like the choices on the ballot, start working to be or to recruit a candidate for the next election.

I’ve heard a lot of complaining from people who can vote about issues from the local level on up. If those topics are important enough for you to talk about, they should be important enough to do something about.

Amy Beth Miller is education reporter for The Daily TImes.

We say we love our country and value democracy, but when it comes to actually voting, eh. The evidence that we're committed to this relationship is lacking.

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