Pulling Weeds

I've come to the conclusion, after a summer of doing it, that the true test of someone's willingness to work is see whether they will pull weeds. Weeding, especially where the ground is hard and the cheat grass thick, is not a rewarding occupation: The work is slow, tedious, and difficult. If you don't much like to work in the first place, you're not going to have a lot of enthusiasm for pulling weeds.

At the Parowan City nursery, we've had a weed problem this year, and I've spent many hours trying to get it under control. In addition to the weeds, we've had some convict labor assigned to the nursery by one of the local judges. Well, not convicts really, but kids who have spent their time misdemeanorin' and need to work off their debt to society with a little community service. What I have discovered is that the two do not mix. That is, convicts will not pull weeds; they would rather go to jail.

(The Economist recently had an article about farmers in Georgia who were running short of field hands this year. An enterprising state legislator came up with the bright idea of building a program to match the state's unemployed population with the farmers who needed help. The plan quickly ran aground when the bright eyed politician discovered that the jobless were unwilling to do that kind of work. So, the unemployed stayed home while the crops withered in the fields.)

Which is why I was dismayed to learn that the local university (Southern Utah University) would be sending a group of freshman to Parowan to do community service. I was assigned a work crew and my job would be to get them to pull weeds in the city cemetery. I figured that I would do the work while they gossiped, flirted, and talked on the phone.

When they arrived yesterday morning the sun was high, and I was already sweating on the end of a shovel. I showed them what to do and got back to work. Much to my surprise, they all pitched in. There were five of them and they each worked in the sun for more than an hour. They didn't complain (much) and managed to complete the task I had started. Hats off to my five kids from SUU, they passed the test.