We English Could Learn A Thing Or Two From The Amish
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
You know, I lived in Northeastern Ohio for a number of years and one of the best things about the area was a large Amish community about an hour South of us.
We thoroughly enjoyed going down into Amish country to shop or just to see the beautiful countryside with rolling hills and all the Amish farms.
One of our favorite trips was to visit Lehmans Hardware Store in Kidron. It's the town that time forgot. It was like stepping back 150 years into the past because it's in the middle of Amish country.
When you enter the town on Main Street there are horses and buggies everywhere and both side of the street are full of parked buggies.
Hardware stores like Lehmans haven't changed much in the last 100 years except for modern refrigerators which run on propane. It's the best place to buy new wood burning stoves.
I have alot of respect for the Amish because they don't let the tech crazed world bother them too much. Instead they put their emphasis on the spiritual side of life, choosing to live close to nature in simple, humble harmony.
Do you know that the Amish are watching us? Yes it's true! We're their guinea pigs. The Amish are not stupid and are not "backwards" because of close-mindedness or stubbornness.
No. When new technology comes out they wait and see what it does to our society and then discuss it among the leaders to see if the result is negative or positive.
The two main technologies which they reject are cars and television. Well when they saw that the teenage pregnancy rate sky-rocketed because for the first time teens had an easy way to get away from their parents...that didn't sit too well with them, too destructive to the fiber of their society.
And television with all the junk being brought into their homes from a lost and carnal world... you can understand why they didn't want that pollution.
They see both of these technologies as being damaging to family and neighbors in that they bring separation instead of keeping friends, family and neighbors in a close bond. This is paramount to the Amish. It's all about community and supporting each other.
How many of your neighbors do you know? I guarantee you that the Amish know all of theirs. I'm not saying that we have to but it certainly works for them as one of their foundational principles to live by.
And they ain't changing anytime soon. Just look at these stats: In the 1960's and 70's, 75% of Amish children would decide to become Amish adults. The most recent statistics show that’s up to 95%.
Amish teens are allowed to go into the "English" world to see if they like it or not, like getting a job at McDonalds for instance.
If they want to join the outside world they can and then are free to come and go as they please as far as visiting family and friends but they have to move out from their parent's house.
But nowadays almost all of them are choosing to become Amish adults and stay with the community full time. In other words they go out, take a look at the way the English are living with all the chaos and messed up values and they're saying NO THANKS!
The Amish settlements are the most stable communities in America and instead of looking foolish they make the rest of us look foolish in several ways!
They have 450 settlements and growing. I'm thankful for them and consider them to be a tremendous blessing to our nation... adding honesty, moral and spiritual as well as family strength to the fabric of our society.
Thanks for stopping in folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
the gentleman redneck
PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if...
this is how you water ski!
I am not judging anyone and I like that there are various communities around the world with different values that we might or might not use in our own life as well.
But the amish community seems a little strange to me. I don't know much about them so I'm not judging them but from what I've learned, I understand that they have a very special lifestyle.
Are you going to make a series? Or is it just this one post?
Oh! and I forgot to mention, although they appear to have an idylic lifestyle they are famous for treating their women like property basically.
It is totally men dominated society with women having and taking care of lots of kids, doing all the gardening, housework, cooking and laundry and sewing and taking care of the men, working before sun up to late at night with no say about anything because the men run things.
And they are doing all this work with no electricity or modern appliances in many cases. The more modern ones have generaters for the clothes washing machines though. But it's a brutal life for the women in many, if not most, of the settlements because the women have no rights and if they're stuck with a jerk male they are stuck permanently because they don't believe in divorce!
It's a very extreme community so not really for me, lol. If I cook, my husband can't expect me to do the dishes :D And he really doesn't. He simply goes and does it. We live here together so we should take care of our household together. We however do the laundry separately since he managed to color my underwear grey and I manage to color his shirts pink, lol. It was an accident from my side as I really didn't expect that that pink towel would release color :D For the rest we do everything together, or rather whoever has time does whatever is needed and I believe it is right. Nowadays, we don't need hunters anymore :D
howdy again Martina! Yes the Amish need to respect their women instead of treating them like slaves basically.
yes we don't need hunters thank God, at least not in our modern cultures. The Mongolian tribes that I did my eagle post about last week still live that way though, I was surprised to learn that.
But the rest of us should split and share the work like you guys do, that's a good example and role model!
We are definitely no good example :) I think that for everyone works something else and I believe that each couple should find the way it works for them. I hope that you're helping Mrs J too! :D
You hope I'm helping WHO? hey I'M the boss around here! lol...no I'm no boss. I do help but not enough according to her because she's a "clean freak" who thinks everyone should be cleaning all the time and the place should be spotless. So that isn't very practical in the country with alot of mud and especially with a big dog.
I still think you guys are good role models but yes, like you say..as long as the couple agree and both work on all the household chores. I can't stand it when men don't pitch in and work.
Mrs. J must never visit my house! She would be horrified!
Haha! Well no actually she doesn't hold other people to her standards, outside of our house she is normal in that respect!
@janton yes, I loved reading the article but I am very interested to know more about the Amish and particularly the gender roles. If it's like you say it is, then it sound very very strange to me - not to mention unhealthy.
Howdy toolanm! Well with the Amish I think it is difficult to say definitively because each settlement has their own rules and some are more reformed and modern and some are very harsh and strict so it just depends on the settlement.
However, there are general trends like treating women like second class citizens or in some cases like property with no say in any aspect of the home and all authority is given to the men. This is fairly common which in itself may not be too bad if the husband is a wonderful and Godly man.
If you look for books about the Amish online you will find many favorable books and also very critical books, with former Amish members writing with different stories and viewpoints both favorable and negative.
The Amish that I knew about gave a very positive image of hard work, honesty, protecting family and community from the dangers of society, independence from the government, self reliance, organic farming, totally green and sustainable living practices, etc.
Thank you @janton, yes I'm definitely interested to know more.
I will look out for documentary or book on the topic.
I do love the connection with nature, organic farming, simple living ...
In addition, I would not agree with your point that treating women like second class citizens wouldn't be too bad if the husband was a decent man.
My take on that is that everyone deserves to be treated equally no matter what gender.
howdy toolanm! thanks for getting back to me. I agree with you 110% of course about equality.
But my point that I was making is that if you were an Amish woman in the community and your husband was a wonderful and Godly man, I didn't say a "decent" man. But if you were living in their system and your husband was wonderful and Godly it would be, or at least should be, much better than the average marriage there.
why? Because a Godly man is NOT going to treat his wife like a second class citizen, he is going to honor, cherish, respect, protect and support her like the Bible commands.
Online there are many books giving first hand accounts both good and bad about their lifestyle. If you want to understand their official rules on things like shunning, divorce, etc you can go to amishamerica.com. But of course that site just gives official doctrine and rules but not things like how women are treated.
thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Okay, I hear you. thanks for taking the time to reply.
It sounds like women need to rely on pot luck as to the character of the husband if they are to be treated well or not.
I'm curious if Aimish women are allowed leadership roles, equal to their male counterparts, in the community.
Howdy Martina! yes you are so right, they are very strange in many ways, trying way too hard to avoid modern conveniences and luxuries because they think that will make them fall into the temptation of becoming carnel and worldly.
I think they could avoid the temptations of the world without resorting to using horses for working their fields and for transportation, to me that's going a little too extreme but it's their choice and it has worked for them for hundreds of years so that's an argument for their lifestyle as well.
No this is just one post because I would have to buy several books to really do details of their beliefs, traditions and way of life and I haven't done that. They are quite the controversy with several books exalting them and several condemning them.
I've had many requests to do a series about whites who were captured by the Indians and then wrote about their experience later in life so that is how I'm leaning at the moment.
I just like the fact that the Amish produce tremendous amounts of organic produce, meats, dairy products and wine of the highest quality and totally green and natural of course. We used to shop at a health food store that was almost entirely products from the large Amish settlements and it was a real blessing.
But they ARE a strange lot. They don't even believe in zippers on their clothing because that's too luxurious! lol. give me a break, they're very against people enjoying life too much!
Nice post about the Amish. I have a lot of respect for how self-sufficient they are.
Howdy sir Keith! yes sir and there are so many people on here, steemit, who are preppers frantically preparing for the big blackout when the grid goes down and the Amish won't even be affected. They're like the ultimate preppers!
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Great post, beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing
Howdy there farm-mom! I really enjoyed finding those pictures. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
There are several large communities here in Wisconsin too.
yeah Wisconsin has everything up there don't they? Yay she's back! Did you have time to post today?
I did do a post this afternoon after the kids left. Wow what a fun weekend! Everyone corked and we had some marvelous meals some really delicious spaghetti and meatballs and this morning my daughter-in-law made homemade donuts. My granddaughter baked a Ginger Cake, and we had homemade pierogi that my daughter-in-law had made and brought along for us to have for lunch today. And I have enough leftovers that I won't have to cook for a week!
haha! That is wonderful! I'm so happy about that. That's the way your weekends should be. And you were able to have enough time away from Steemit? If it was easy to step away then you aren't too addicted! lol.
The kids played Minecraft and did homework, my daughter in law cooked and my son watched car races and soccer, so I had occasional bits of time to check in! And now I have a cat to enjoy for the next two weeks before they come back again.
oh, they left you their cat to babysit? haha. If you want to babysit a pet then a cat is a great choice!
Busek stayed with me last fall when they were traveling, and he loves being at my house and watching the squirrels out the window! We get along pretty well.
oh wonderful! Busek? That is an unusual name that I've never heard!
Hi janton, I really enjoyed my trip to an Amish community in Ohio a long while ago now. They are amazing spiritually minded people who are very connected to Mother Nature. I always think that they must be very stressed free people living the simple life.
Howdy tonight angiemitchell! Yes the simple life is less stessful that's for sure. Might be more stress on your physical body though! lol.
I could hardly read thebwords on this post because of the awesome pictures. So beautiful I must say.
Howdy hermannsol! Well thank you so much, the pictures tell a story much better than I could so you absorbed the most important part, I found them fascinating as well, thanks so much for visiting and commenting!
I could not help myself janton. The pictures are truly fascinating.
Howdy again hermannsol! Thanks so much, I agree! It's a fascinating way of life.
do you guys have peoples who live similarly in your country? Without modern luxuries out in the remote areas perhaps?
@janton yeah...
Plenty of them.
I think the Amish have the right idea. I don't have a car or a TV but I'd sure miss my interweb.
Howdy dierdyweirdy! yes Ma'am just think of how much indoctrination and manipulation they miss out on by not watching tv! they do use the internet in their places of business but not at home. When we were in real estate we dealt with some Amish investors and they contacted us online quite a bit from their computer at their shop, they were building contractors.
But although you don't need that restrictive of a lifestyle because you are already so righteous, you would fit right in with them!
Hahah Mr. J. I can always depend upon you for a chuckle.
hehehe thank you deirdyweirdy! lol.
Very interesting images to enhance your very informative blog @janton It certainly is an interesting way of life the Amish have chosen and it is amazing to know that much of their lifestyle has not changed much at all over many years.
Howdy today Trudee! Thanks for the kind words, I thought the pictures were wonderful, it's a beautiful part of the country there in central Ohio. Yes, they would keep on functioning just fine if our grid goes down!
In fact, in that respect they look like the ultimate preppers!
Hi, @janton!
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howdy there steem-plus! Thank you so much for the upvote and for your fine system!