huge tracts of land

I haven't been back in the U.S. since three years ago, and the first thing I've forgotten and now immediately notice is the largeness of everything. Well, this is not something I've forgotten in abstract, but the sense of vast physical openness has definitely grow vague from removal of experience, much like the memory of being food poisoned. Some things need to be experienced first hand to be truly understood.

There's one house about a block away from Daniel's parent's home which is unlike 95% of the other houses of these cul-de-sacs and street loops. Its front lawn and most of its backyard is covered with ground floras instead of just plain grass. In the middle of the backyard is a small meadow-like clearing--a pocket of neat tranquility with a light shading of thin fir tree branches and bird calls. I like to slow down my running pace as I pass by that particular house to imagine lying down in that pocket of cultivated wilderness and, while lying there, imagine that I'm in the middle of a real forest. It makes me that much more aware of the difference in natural environment between southern Illinois and the Pacific Northwest. Everything here is spread-out and slightly monotonous as a result. I wish there are more trees.

Daniel opined in response to my wondering out loud why all the houses here have such sprawling front lawns with just nothing but grass that it's probably because people want to feel like royalty. The great expanse of land that is not only just for decoration, but which consumes massive amount of labor in mowing and watering in order to look that way, certainly suggests people of almost unlimited means. But I think royalties can/should only be one in a million in order for it to mean anything, or be harmless and not exploitative.