The common theme that ¨Clearing Paths to the Past¨ and the poem, ¨To be of use¨ by Marge Piercy share is to work hard. The lesson that the reader can learn from the passages is that working hard and accomplishing a certain task can make someone feel joyous. In the passage, ¨Clearing Paths to the Past¨ the narrator constantly shovels the long strip of sidewalk every time that it snows. No matter when it happens, he works hard and makes sure that the job gets done. In the poem, ¨To be of use¨ the narrator states that he loves the kind of people that work hard at a task. The narrator says, ¨I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along.¨ A reader