10. Gardening

Weeding the pumpkin patch isn't very complicated. The work is exactly what the name implies: removing grass and other weeds from the young pumpkin plants, which are about 20 cm tall. The equipment used is similar to the head of a vacuum cleaner with a handle. The user has to push the head along the ground, which is a flat piece of iron like a hoe. The worker has to walk holding the stick and push away the weeds around the young pumpkin plants. The rows of pumpkins are long, averaging about 150-200 meters. The spacing between plants is about two feet, and between rows is about 1 meter. That's all there is to the complexity of the work, but the challenge is the long working hours, which are 8-10 hours per day. For example, you might start around 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning and finish at 5:00 PM, or even as late as 7:00 PM. When I say 7:00 PM, don't be alarmed, because the pumpkin weeding season is during the summer here. New Zealand's summer is special because the sun rises early and sets late. In some parts of the summer, it feels like 6:00 PM at 8:00 PM, with the sky just beginning to dim. This phenomenon is likely a result of New Zealand's location near the South Pole, combined with the Earth's axial tilt and its position in its orbit at that time of year. I find this exciting, a strange phenomenon with a logical explanation.

So, I'll go back to the work topic. Although the working hours are long, there will be a break of about 15 minutes every two hours of work, and there will be a lunch break of about half an hour. This was New Zealand's labor law at that time. In other words, if we started work at eight in the morning, we would have a 15-minute break at ten o'clock, and we would take another break at noon or half past noon, depending on what was agreed. And there would be another 15 minutes at three in the afternoon.

And if there are volunteers who are willing to work until 7 PM, as I explained about the summer, there will also be a 15-minute break at 5 PM. All of this is just a rough example. In reality, adjustments may be made as appropriate for the situation and the mutual agreement of the team and the employer. For example, some jobs may start at 7 AM, but the first break will be at 10 AM. You might think, "That's already three hours!" But that's because of the reasons I mentioned. Everything can be adjusted according to the situation and agreement. From another perspective, during the morning hours of the day, people's energy levels are still high and they are fresh. Extending the work time by another hour may not significantly affect work performance. And most importantly, the workers are happy to start early because they feel they are at least out working. Having the opportunity to work extra hours will increase their income, while the cost of gas remains the same for the trip there and back. The clothes they wear that day also need to be washed only once. Therefore, getting extra working hours is a good thing for most of them. At the same time, the job owners want to produce as much work as possible per day. Since agricultural work is related to the weather and time of year, it is necessary for the work to be completed on time. Since both the employer and the employees believe they benefit from the agreement, even if it's somewhat illegal, adjustments are made to suit the situation.

Most of the work will be in the form of hiring groups of workers to perform certain activities that are conducive to plant growth, or in production processes that large machinery or current technology cannot handle due to the terrain and the nature of the work, which is likely more suitable for using live workers. From a human perspective, the work at each stage is generally not complex at all. For example, it might involve picking fruit one by one using an aluminum ladder, thinning out some of the young fruit of apple trees, and leaving some fruit at the appropriate quantity, spacing for the full development of future yields. It could also involve weeding pumpkin fields as mentioned earlier, picking strawberries, or removing some grape leaves to allow sunlight to reach the grape clusters, which helps with the color development process. As you can see, the work mentioned here, as well as many other types of work not yet mentioned, is often not complex or require much analysis or decision-making.

At some point while I was working somewhere, I don't remember exactly when, but the thought I'm about to share is still clear in my memory. Human labor, working in the same way over and over to accomplish tasks in large areas of gardens, is actually a living machine, performing its function in a roofless factory called a garden. I used to be aware of this and had a bias against what was happening, against the sadness of each person's different lives. Some people had to spend almost their entire lives doing this type of repetitive work, work with long hours and what seemed like tiring manual labor.

But in reality, not long after that, I understood that these were the natural social dynamics of humans, who for the most part wanted to choose the most comfortable way to spend their time on Earth. And what could perfectly address this was using the labor of others for their own benefit. This is not anyone's fault in today's world, where the majority of the world's population has the right and freedom to use their time as they please. The era of slavery, which arose, is over, but due to human nature, slavery will continue to exist in society. The only difference is that in this era, people have the right to choose whether to be free or to submit voluntarily.

The key is whether or not we can become aware of this. In the world of the internet, where education and useful ideas are no longer confined to specific locations, everyone has the opportunity to learn toward a path of independence. However, before pursuing those paths, it all begins with recognizing the value of each person's time on this earth – a treasure that only you have the right to manage and utilize.

This might vary from person to person depending on their life circumstances, and I don't really agree with the concept of fate. I think it's more about the law of cause and effect (although it might seem difficult to see the big picture with human senses, it should be explainable through logic). The point is, time is something you can exchange for money, and even though you can indirectly buy time with money, when the moment comes for us to leave this world, no one can bribe the course of nature (you know what I mean, right?). What are we exchanging our most valuable resource, the time of each life, for? What is the most important thing you would trade your life for?

Well, I've gone on for quite a while, but that's just what keeps crystallizing in my mind from the experiences I've had. I hope it didn't make the break from the NZ travel story seem too tedious. So, I'll continue by telling you about the methods I use to keep work from being too boring when I have to work outdoors for long hours.

On days when I was in a good mood and feeling bright, I often chatted with the people I work closely with. I asked them this and that and I am a good listener. If they asked me, I shared my thoughts too. But the depth of the answers depends on me, how comfortable I am with how deep I want to go. I'm usually the one asking and listening more. But of course, like a party, conversations must come to an end. Another method I often used is to find something offline to listen to, which I downloaded and saved on my phone. This depends on individual preferences, but what I'd like to recommend is that if you can make it offline, it will save more battery. Additionally, you shouldn't wear headphones for too long; it's better to alternate with talking to others. Since we only have two ears to use for our entire lives, it wouldn't be fun to hear things unclearly because we used them too intensely before.

The audio I liked to listen to can be divided into 3 types: First, songs or instrumental music. This type was for relaxation, sometimes to get me pumped up for working outdoors in the hot sun. Once I put in my earphones, put on my hat and glasses, and have my favorite songs playing in my ears, it's like being in another world. No matter how hot the sun is, sometimes it helped me keep working with a good mood.

Secondly, there was foreign language audio that I wanted to improve. I downloaded it from YouTube, and some apps can support this. I listened to this when I was calm and neutral, and ready to learn. In other words, during times when I didn't feel bored or tormented, but it's not like my brain will learn these things instantly when I open them. I just wanted to increase my listening hours by listening repeatedly. Whether there will be immediate benefits was not the point. Learning a language is about repetition and accumulating hours. Sometimes it feels like we're listening without paying attention, but the brain will retain those repetitions, which will make it easier when we study it directly because there might be some residual old thoughts. This is a personal feeling, but I have heard people say something similar.

 And thirdly, it's about listening to Dharma, listening to the truth of the revered monk. Listening to this would make me feel detached and aware that I shouldn't take temporary things that cannot be grasped too seriously. This type of listening would help reduce my recklessness and allowed me to continue working more relaxed without being too enslaved by the greed within me, which could affect my mental health and then impact my body. I dare to say this because I have had real experiences of taking things too seriously. Every time it passes and I look back, I often find that it wasn't worth it. Why did I have to be so serious and stressed back then? You, as I talked to myself, were too obsessed at the time, and I often look back with amusement at my own serious infatuation.

And another thing, beside the activities mentioned earlier, was immersing myself in the surrounding nature with the images of leaves, trees, and mountains. Perhaps the place I worked at is fortunate enough to have a stream as well. I got to hear the sound of flowing water and birds singing, which was different from the birds in Thailand, but it's still the sound of nature nonetheless. This kind of environment and seeing things like this was like living art, making me not feel that what I was doing was too bad. From another perspective, it might be similar to a sedative drug that makes me feel good sometimes. A drug that makes me feel that the world is a pleasant place and not as bad as people say. Ultimately, it's all about how you choose to look at things. What do you think?