My Amish Experience

Our church is doing some remodeling and we hired an Amish cabinetmaker to build a new altar, pulpit and baptismal font. Since this Amishman lives near me, I've been the liaison in our dealings with him.

Harley is an agreeable man - 26 years old and married with three young children. I've had the pleasure of getting to know him a little and seeing him interact with his daughter, Susannah, who is about 2 years old and his 3 month-old son, Clarence. Susannah sometimes takes her naps in the afternoon on her father's big workbench. Earlier this week, Clarence sat in his carrier on that same bench while his father and I talked and his mother and sisters milked the cow. Another time, Susannah and I watched Harley milk the cow while he and I talked livestock and barn layout.

Last night, I went over and Harley's father, sister, brother-in-law and nieces and nephew were just leaving. They had just completed the construction of a dining room table for the sister and brother-in-law. When all the leaves are in place, the table is 16 feet 9 inches long (over 5m).

When I first met Harley, we spoke of how hidden costs always crop in construction projects. He told me that when he built his house, he thought he had the price figured to the last dollar. "I was sure it was going to cost me $20,000," he said, "and it ended up costing me almost 30."

Harley's off-grid, simple lifestyle appeals to me. Yes, I'll admit to being a romantic but I'm enough of a realist to know that it's not an easy life. Then again, perhaps we need to define "easy."

Is it "easy" to own a $250,000 McMansion compared to a neat, simple $30,000 home?
Is it "easy" to drive 40 miles a day in a gas-guzzling SUV to participate in a rat race in order to maintain a consumerist lifestyle that is a constant cycle of buying and throwing away compared to a home-based life that strengthens families and small communities?

Since our modern society is geared toward the former choices, they do indeed appear easier. But that ease belies the unsustainability of such a society. We simply cannot continue to pile up debt and burn natural resources at the rate we're going. (I'm speaking of myself here as much as anyone).

The thing that I most envy about Harley's lifestyle is the sense of community. I'd guess there are maybe twenty Amish homes in his immediate vicinity and I'm sure he knows them all. Want some furniture made? Go down the road about a mile and see Roman Yoder - if you pass the apple trees, you've gone too far. Need something turned on a wood lathe? Go about another mile or so and turn left on the road that the county abandoned but is still maintained by the Amish families who live there.

Getting to know Harley has solidified in me the desire to simplify my lifestyle and to get to know my neighbors better. I think that combining the appropriate use of technology with the simplicity of the Amish life would be the best of both worlds.