Beth Morgan and Sunshine

When you read a book like this, you begin to sense how isolated we all are in our own little homes. I don’t typically need help with dishes and laundry. I have machines to do that for me—and I’m very thankful for them—but each convenience has, in a way, cut us off from others. The doors of our homes aren’t often open; they’re closed. We don’t need quilting bees to finish the quilts before winter. We don’t need canning and harvest time to stock our pantries. Our sons and daughters are often at school all day. They neither see nor engage in domestic duties. It’s funny how the challenge of all that manual labor forced everyone to have a more narrow view of life. All you could do was deal with the work in front of you. But it also gave them richer, fuller lives, because you were dependent upon your neighbors to get the work done.