Geniuses change everything, sometimes for the better.

From Alfred’s journal

The man who owns the gray house at the corner has spent three weeks replacing his lawn with something he read about, and today the trucks came and took away the last of the old grass in rolls. For years I took his side in these things, since the yard was tired and nobody loved it. But the robins worked that lawn every morning after rain, and whatever is going in instead is gravel and low spiky plants from somewhere dry. Geniuses change everything, sometimes for the better. He stood out there at dusk with his hands on his hips, honestly delighted, and I could not tell him what had been under the grass. I do not know yet whether the robins will find something else by the fence or simply stop coming; it has only been a day.