For one thing it's shared pain: I'm not subjecting my neighbors to anything they are not in turn subjecting me to, so we all deal with our pain in the name of l

For one thing it's shared pain: I'm not subjecting my neighbors to anything they are not in turn subjecting me to, so we all deal with our pain in the name of leaf removal once per year. Also, we all collectively have many opportunities for "meditative physical activity." There is grass to be cut, beds to be weeded, snow to be shoveled, paint to be painted, etc. What we have less of is time. I was born in the 60's so I've done a lot of hand raking, including my current property before I owned a blower. It's a matter of probably 8 to 10 hours to do the whole thing. So we all make judgments, I guess, about where to spend the free time we have, and what amount of labor saving is worth what amount of cacophony.