Urban "barn-raising"

This Saturday I'm moving across town. This is my third move in the Washington metro area. Each time I have sent an email asking for help to a large group of friends in my address book. I feel bad asking people to give up a few hours on Saturday to come lug my boxes around, but it validates a fundamental sense of community when people help out. It's made me think of a Yankee "barn-raising" of yesteryear, which was when neighbors came together to raise the timber frames for someone's new barn, knowing that one day they might need the same help and could expect reciprocity. Since my friends don't seem to move as often as I do, there hasn't been as much reciprocity as there should be. It might be easier to just pay a moving company or StarvingStudents.com to load and unload my truck, but then I wouldn't get the opportunity to be in the position of needing help and being grateful to friends who (yet again) come through in the clinch.