A random act of kindness?

So as I braved the 90 degree heat at noon today mowing what used to be my lawn, I couldn't make myself stop staring at the woman across the street's yard. Now I'll be the first to admit that my weeds get out of control every once in a while . . but this particular collection of weeds that greets my eye every time I open my front door is out of control. The only rational explanation for their gross neglect is that the owner’s staging some sort of protest. Perhaps she’s trying to send a message to Mother Nature in protest of our summer-long drought. Let me know how that works out for you . .

Here’s where I get conflicted (you can expect that particular phrase in about 85% of my posts here) . . one of the things I wanted to do when I decided to stay home was to become more involved in our community and the homeowners association. I think the people in charge of it now are grossly incompetent, and I’d bet there are a lot of property values going in the toilet as a result. So I plan to volunteer to take an active role in enforcing the rules of the development . . lawn mowed neatly, no unapproved structures, trash cans not in view from the road, etc. This, after all, is right up my alley. I spent 9 years managing restaurants, most of which could be boiled down to a very simple premise: Try to convince a mostly self-serving audience to not only buy in to what you were saying, but to take action for the greater good. My best estimate of my career-long success rate in that endeavor is between 2 and 4 percent.

Then where does that leave me with regard to the fledgling rainforest across the street? Honestly, I can’t keep looking at until the 3^rd Tuesday of the month when the HOA meets, so if she doesn’t get it done today, I’m going to sneak over there tomorrow and just mow it for her anonymously. Does it still count as a random act of kindness if I’m just doing it for myself?