Chapter 3

I find the third chapter to be a good illustration of the concept of teamwork. Eric and Mary are being pleasantly surprised by the Millers’ and Jones’s constant willingness to help. It is the very lack of technology and the nature of the tedious work that revolves around the garden and food preparation (i.e.: hoeing vegetables, cultivating, weeding, canning food) that brings people together in magical way. This bond has the potential to be even stronger than that of a regular work team, since the actual subsistence of people is involved, meaning that they have to be able to cultivate their garden in order to survive in the winter. Therefore, the families in the community feel the need to show the newcomers how do the necessary tasks better. As the physical aspect of work fades into the background, friendships are formed through working together and having meaningful conversations.

Work is being seen as an occasion to do something else, and I can see how focusing too much on the mechanics of the job actually makes the work fastidious and less efficient. Also, I like how the author describes how not even dull and tiresome work such as that of bean picking and weeding doesn’t seem that bad once you realize it has to be done, start doing it and don’t even realize how you detach yourself from your body and get lost in thoughts and conversations. In way I could say that I was using a similar “laborsaving mechanism” when I used to do a lot of conditioning and physical training for tennis.