Amish community, a community living between the past and the present?
For the weekend, my host family and I visited Shipshewana, Indiana, where a part of the Amish as well as the Mennonite community reside.
After visiting the Museum, taking a look at the neighborhood and ending by seeing the play "Confession" produced by the Blue Gate, I had a quite complete image of the Amish Community, satisfying some questions I had, and rising others.
Is this community actually frozen in the past? Or are their ideologies and beliefs a way to preserve the Earth and have a sustainable development?
In a way, when you see that group of people still using horse buggies, wearing the same type of dark clothes from hundreds of years, never had electricity ..the first thing that comes to your mind is : how do they survive? What does it look like to live plain every single day? Do they dream sometimes of the "normal" lives? Never seen T.V., never used a car, never took a picture, never went to University..
Life is about change, advancement. Life is the water of this world, why would you freeze it? Why would you want to live as your ancestors used to? Why wouldn't you accept the innovation?
But in another way, you see how peaceful they are. How basic they live, taking advantage of every element God provided. No worries, just harmony. No conflicts, just agreement. They learned from the past, they live for today, they provide for tomorrow. Their are all one hand. A hand that promised to be strong, to maintain their beliefs whatever the circumstances were. Isn't it real life? Isn't it what matters the most?
We are living someone else's life. Everything was planned according to the society's expectations. But the Amish community, they do what they know is right and important for them and for everybody. However, isn't there a solution to combine innovation and heritage.. a way to combine past and future.. a way to live the present as it is yours.
Yes there is one.
When would we start using it?
When we all start to think objectively. When we stop judging someone who is not wearing the same things we wear or someone who wants arts to be his world. When we take different politic opinions as a way to find a solution, not for exclusion. When, instead, we ask the question: why and how? Then we can preserve our traditions and cultures but finding a way to make it new, original.
Then we can all be Amish, Christians, Muslim, Jewish. We can be communist and capitalist. We can be Arab, Asian, European, American. We can be ourselves. We live our own lives. We preserve the heritage, we innovate.