There, I have offered you some valuable advice the next time you have occasion to grab the reins of an Amish buggy and take it for a spin. Also, it helps to have a 7-year-old Amish boy sitting beside you to keep you on four wheels. Even if he doesn’t understand English yet.
Meet the family of Jonas and LidiAnn (don’t assume I am spelling names correctly here). They live in upstate New York, some six hours away from my own little Connecticut home, and if you had gotten a glimpse of their lifestyle as I did recently, you would think they are a world away. It’s more like centuries away.
Google the term, the Amish, and you will get an Internet primer on what these Christian folk are like. Visit some of them in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, or where I did, near Hammond, New York, and you will get an instant education in what it’s like to live your life without, well, a lot of things.
A few things you need to know about the Amish. They dress plainly. Their homes are just as plain, with plain gray walls. They use their talents to make a living, whether it is weaving baskets, quilting, or building furniture. And, they believe that large families are a blessing from God. It is not uncommon for an Amish couple to have seven, eight, nine or more children.
Their children are fascinated by our trinkets - my cousin’s wristwatch had one of the little ones in the first Amish family I met practically spellbound, and later in the weekend, Jonas’ little Andy and Sam got a kick out of viewing the images I showed them I had taken on my digital camera.
I’m thinking these kids would love television; the way they laughed as I clicked through the photos of them and their animals and vegetable garden was a reflection of their sheer giddiness at being so close to a technology they do not have -- or perhaps even know about. The children in my life would be horrified to live such an existence, but if you are reared in this fashion, I suppose it is a matter of not knowing what you are missing.
I’m thinking there is ignorance in that kind of bliss. Particularly these days, as I am feeling there is too much “noise” in my life. There are so many distractions and demands on my time. We all have them, though our awareness may be muted.
If you are like many people, you may not know much about the Amish unless you have traveled to these parts of Pa. or NY where many of them have settled. Or, you may have become familiar with the Amish through the tragedy that occurred in Pennsylvania a few years ago, where a gunman held schoolchildren hostage, ultimately shooting ten, killing five Amish children before killing himself.
Many people who heard about that ordeal were shocked to learn that the Amish in that community -- true to their Amish ways -- offered immediate forgiveness toward the family of the gunman, and did not appear to bear any anger or ill will toward the man who wrought such heartache.
I have not researched this, so I need to say that it is possible there was someone among those heartbroken families that struggled with this (certainly, if you watched the Lifetime Movie Network’s fictional take on the shooting, Amish Grace, you saw one interpretation of the possible reaction of this kind).
Let me say up front that I did not visit these Amish people in New York State as a reporter, so I did not take copious notes or snap away with my camera to capture the details of their basic life and their places in it. I was a visitor to their homes as a friend of a friend of a friend, and still, I was welcomed and invited in like one of the family. I did not want to exploit them or offend them, so I took few photos that showed their faces. Many Amish will not allow you to take photos of or around them at all, so I was sparing in my camera use.
Jonas’ six children were running about barefoot, and all appeared to be healthy and happy. There is Sam, Eli, Andy, a middle girl child whose name I never did catch, Salome, and Caroline, the baby, who is just six months old but I swear, felt like a five-pound bag of sugar on my lap despite her mother’s pronouncement that she weighs 14 pounds. Three boys and three girls. My cousin asked, “What next?” wondering what the tie-breaking next child will be, because for certain, God willing, there will be one.
“You will have to come back next year and see,” LidiAnn said with a smile.
Jonas’ specialty is tables and chairs. He didn’t mind showing us around his workshop, which has an upstairs that holds his inventory and the parts for products yet to be assembled. Perfectly crafted pieces for future Amish furniture. And I was getting to see it right where it was being made.
This family is quite a contrast to the other Amish family I met on Friday - Menna, his wife Caroline, and their children - they have nine in all. They make expertly woven, colorful basket containers of all kind: magazine holders, napkin holders, picnic baskets and baskets with dividers to hold two bottles of wine. There are hampers and lazy-Susan type baskets too. The inventory is low; a good sign that business has been good the past few weeks, and the women will be getting back to basket weaving when they have finished preserving the peaches.
I can’t help thinking, what a hard life these Amish must have and still they seem to be content, even peaceful. Yet, when I stepped back into my world after that weekend, I was reminded that I sometimes think I have it tough too. Paying the bills in this rough economy of joblessness, inflation, recession. Not being able to take a fancy vacation. Having to answer to the demands of a hectic workplace. And on. Makes me think my weekend in Amish country was a hidden blessing of its own for me. That’s why I’m sharing it with you. Thought-provoking, isn’t it?
Now why didn’t I take that Amish buggy out and open ‘er up when I had the chance?
Copyright 2011 by Marianne V. Heffernan
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