I do not harvest for fun. I do not look to harvesting as something to do for enjoyment, as I do with reading. It is something that needs doing. We usually need more of something for all our projects, so there is always a reason to harvest something.

There were times in Eorzea where we would harvest large amounts of something to build something large, like an airship or submersible, or even a house. This was something Husband and I could do together, in the snows of Coerthan or the barren rocks of Northern Thanalan or the marshes of Upper La Noscea. We could talk, or joke, or even argue.

The idea of gathering as something zen-like was not, as far as I know, taught in Eorzea. That was something I learned from Husband, and I have mostly applied it here in Earth. Mindlessly gathering for hours is a way to make things like anger or dread or confusion go away, simply thinking more and more about where to swing my hatchet or pickaxe. Husband has said gathering helps him think through ideas, that keeping his hands busy lets his mind do what it needs to do.

It is not as useful when one does not have any of these things. If I am not angry or dreading or confused or thinking through ideas, it is something that needs doing when I think I could perhaps be doing something else. Since the gathering lets me let go of other thoughts and feelings, I should be able to let go of that feeling as well. Perhaps that is something I can learn in time.

Yesterday was not that time. Yesterday, after finishing Tony's window and messaging Husband about it, I harvested corn solely because we will need corn. No thoughts troubled me, no feelings stirred me, the projects in our list did not excite me. I was only there to harvest corn.

Over time, I did not want to harvest corn.

The fields I harvest from are largely empty these days, except for the vegetation patches that perhaps only Husband and I can find. The corn field once held a lot of corn. Someone had to have removed it. Even if they used a machine to do so, it must have taken a lot of time. How could they spend days, perhaps moons, doing this sort of work if I had trouble doing it for an afternoon?

When I asked this at dinner, Husband shrugged and said, "People do. They have jobs where they do the same thing for hours every day. They've got the temperament for it, or they find their inner tranquility or whatever. Or...not. They need the money, so they'll do what they have to do."

"Have you done that sort of work?"

"Cleaning at the diner's the closest I've ever come."

"That is not quite the same. Things happen at the diner. The children are interesting."

"Yeah, especially when they knock a milkshake off the table."

"It helps when I have something to think about. Or not think about. Or be angry about."

"You want me to upset you every day, my love?"

"I think not. It would be nice if I could read while I harvest."

"Well, you can, sort of. You've been getting books from Amazon, right? They have audio editions of lots of stuff."

"Audio editions?"

"Yeah, a recording of someone reading the book aloud, so you can listen to it while doing something else."

"Does that work with all books? I can think of things in books that are better to see."

"You mean like long conversations where it doesn't say who's saying what?"

"Does that happen a lot?"

"More often than you'd think."

I considered. "I suppose it would be like listening to a storyteller. But there is no sound system in a cornfield."

"Use headphones. Don't you do that when you game?"

"They do not fit my head well. I do not move when I game, so that is not a problem. I move much more when harvesting."

He grew thoughtful. He looked at me silently for a while.

"Husband...?"

"Sorry, got an idea. Can you give me a hundred dollars? And do you have any cotton left?"

I went to the diner alone after that, while Husband took the bus somewhere. Hours later he came to the diner and asked for my phone. He set it and some headphones on the counter and did something to the phone settings.

"These are bluetooth headphones. Once I've paired them with the phone you can play music and audio books on the phone and listen to them with the headphones."

"I said before that headphones do not fit me."

"You did, yes." He drew a cotton coif from his inventory. "Here. Try this on."

I looked at the coif. It was not an ordinary one; it was called a Cotton Headphone Coif of Gathering. It had a sort of pocket on its crown. Husband must have made a new recipe for it.

"This does not boost my gathering much."

"Yeah, but you're harvesting corn. How much gathering do you need?"

I put it on. It allowed for my ears, but the pocket covered them at the base.

"Okay...hold still..."

He picked up the headphones and brought them to my head. I felt them sliding into the pocket and over the base of my ears.

He brought up an app on my phone, and I started to hear music. He showed me two buttons on the phone. I pressed them and found the music getting louder and quieter.

I nodded to Husband. "This works." My voice was strangely quiet with the music playing.

He pointed to a button in the app, then pressed it and the music stopped. "Now, I'm pretty sure bluetooth won't work while your phone's in your inventory, so I got you a fanny pack too." He handed me a pouch on a belt.

"What is a fanny?"

"Old-fashioned word for butt."

"I do not want this bumping my tail."

"So wear it in the front. Lot of people do."

"But it is a fanny pack."

He looked at me and sighed. I smiled and glanced away, and saw the children looking at us. At me, perhaps.

I struck a pose for them. They stared at me, then slowly turned away.

"So what's your first audio book, my love?"

"The Lord of the Rings, I think. Sam was surprised I hadn't heard of it."

Husband winced. "Yeah, that's up there with Superman these days. But start with The Hobbit. That comes before it."

We got to my Kindle account on the phone and downloaded The Hobbit. I used the app to start it playing. As the man's voice sounded in my ears I gave Husband a hug and kiss, then left him to handle the register while I cleaned, since he had worked so hard for me to hear books.

Over the rest of the evening I learned of hobbits and dwarves and wizards and dragons and pocket handkerchiefs. During the day today, as Husband went to install Tony's window and I went to harvest corn, I learned further of trolls and elves and giants and goblins, and whatever Gollum was.

Later in the day I took the bus to Tulsa, and Rika learned of primals and tempering and dungeons. And I learned of players other than Husband. Perhaps I would not have minded being ignorant of them.

It is now late afternoon as I sit in this place called McDonalds drinking a Coke and typing while waiting for Husband to meet me. Soon, Husband assures me, I will learn of peking duck.