Experts say it’s not actually necessary, but do you anyway?
If you’ve spent any time at all out in Boston’s suburbs, you’ve probably seen them: Sad looking men bent over a rake, facing down a great expanse of lawn strewn with what used to be lush, abundant foliage, but is now just refuse discarded by the empty branches that taunt him from above. He used to have friends, a spouse, perhaps children … He can’t quite recall, because now all he knows is leaves, as far as his watery eyes can see.
Granted, this scenario might not be entirely universal — there are plenty of sad looking women who rake, for instance, and a sizable number of lawn-owners who take on the task not with a rake, but with a 700 CFM backpack leaf blower, herding leaves like Ghostbusters sucking up spirits with a proton pack. (And drowning out howling dogs, passing trucks, and planes flying overhead while they do.)
And not only that, some of them follow up by bagging, burning, and/or tossing said leaves — these are people who once had weekends! Where they did things! Fun things!