We as English folk are often enamored by things. Things in our lives should not be just as they are, but rather we want things to have a particular pizazz to them. A house is not just a house, but generally people want a ‘nice’ house. So, it is with the automobile. People want ‘new’ cars. Whatever it is, really, we desire it to be grand. That’s the outer-world’s way. Things become the focus of all our energy, our future goals, what we long to attain in and out of life. The belief is present that these wonderful things will make us happier, or further complete, on our journeys to the end, when it is all given up. The prevailing belief is that the nicer things of life bring more and more happiness.

       Certainly, too, it’s not just things, right? It’s achievements. It can be getting engaged. It’s amazing the glamour that goes into the rings! How fancy and pricey they can get. Or, take arriving at one’s wedding day. For most English, that marching down the aisle generally isn’t a cheap affair. Rather, it involves great planning months after months and reserving of venues until the setting up of the place, the church, and all of that. The bills stack one on top of the other. But let’s not leave it all at that. Then there are career oriented goals. People start somewhere, and they have the desire to work themselves up the ladder, right? To bigger and more important positions. Rarely do we stay where we began.

       What’s wrong with any of this? Nothing necessarily. The problem rests in whether we have our hearts set upon them so much that we cannot see the real things of life. Houses and cars cannot make one ultimately happy. We are aware that when these types of things are obtained, the newness wears off. Same is true for the engagement. Sure, probably great for the time it lasts, but it does come to an end on the wedding day. That day, is just one day, and it too has its fulfillment. Then its over, and life goes back to the way it was, though, now its two people sharing a life together. A position at work satisfies until it doesn’t anymore. Then a higher position has to be achieved.

       All of these non-Amish ways are rooted in individualism. Individuality. That’s the difference when you really get down to it. The Amish, well, the Amish on the other hand, they are a collective society. Sure, there is some individualism, but not near to the extent as it is with the non-Amish. Things in their world, for the most part, are done pretty much the same across the board, in the same vein. You don’t see the Amish changing residences I don’t think as much as we do, though, I can’t prove that. All their buggies look the same, are even the same color depending upon their community. There are small things that can be changed, the interior color, certain lights, etc, but they’re pretty much the same. Engagements don’t involve rings, are even delayed in announcement, and weddings are particularly humble. With work, well, people are discouraged, say, if they’re business owners, from growing those businesses too large. That would be prideful and could lead to sin.

       Even though things are collective, does that mean that happiness takes a hit? Not necessarily. In fact, I would say most likely not. What about the women? Things for Amish women are pretty different compared to things with English women. That is true. An English woman can be traditional if she wants to be. Perhaps she’ll work a full-time job, part-time position, or be a stay-at-home mom altogether. It’s really up to her and her husband. The Amish woman, well, besides a side-business perhaps, I think her primary focus is on the home in a particularly traditional sense. She takes care of most of the needs of the children. She tends to household responsibilities, and even works the farm if there is one. The focus is primarily on the home, where the English woman’s interests may be divided between home and work, or even have a more work-focus altogether.

       It goes even further with the English. Women have the opportunity to make a name for themselves. I guess you could say Amish women do too, but I think that’s more for the single Amish women who haven’t married. I believe they are the one’s who are more likely to make a name for themselves in business. But, due to individualism, again, English women are able to pursue careers alongside having their families. This split-attention could even lead to the feeling among a woman that she really shouldn’t be focusing so much of her attention on her career. Perhaps, deep down, she feels that she is neglecting her family—that she isn’t giving them the time they deserve. So, perhaps, a tug-of-war may exist for the English woman that the Amish woman never has to face. So the traditional role, say what you will, makes things easier because of the collective way of doing things.

       And assuredly, one will argue, that this is where the Amish culture goes wrong. “They teach the old fashioned way for women, and that’s how they have them live. So they are prohibiting potential in women that they would have in regular society.” Okay, fair enough. I guess that’s true that if Amish women are all doing just about the same thing and not working any kind of careers or pursuing any kind of professional fulfillment, then it only makes sense that some, who would be talented in certain areas, like music, business, mathematics, science, religion, whatever, would never see that fulfillment. They might not even know it exists. So, one might say, “That’s morally wrong.” And let’s us not forget that men face prohibitions when it comes to their careers, though, they clearly have more choice in the direction they will choose to go.

       But, going back to the outer-world’s way of doing things, we find that a lot of what the English strive after is hyped up. It is flashy and over-the-top. In short, it isn’t reality. It’s about events that come and go, that don’t last. With the Amish, because things are down several notches to say the least, they don’t have quite the flux I don’t think on the excitement scale. Sure, they have events too, but like we’ve discussed, they are more toned down. And because they are more toned down, the importance of daily life I think is more highly emphasized versus the goal-oriented approach of being excited for the next event, the next ‘big’ thing. What Ben Franklin has said then becomes experientially true: “Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.”

       So, in dissecting the non-Amish values, we see that they are in fact made out to be more than they really are. I mean, a house is just a house. Sure, it’s nice to have a nice house, but at the end of the day, it’s just a ‘house.’ It can only be enjoyed so much. It isn’t life itself. Same is true with an automobile. Sure, if it’s fancy, it’s fun when we drive it and we get enjoyment out of it. But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter all that much whether we get from point A to point B in a $20,000 car or a $60,000 car. The important thing is that a man’s fiancée has a ring, not how expensive that ring is. Sure, you want it to be nice and not cheap, but it doesn’t have to cost $10,000 unless you can afford that. The wedding day comes and goes. One remembers most being with the other person I believe, and their families and friends.

       One area where I think the argument becomes more valid for the secular way of doing things versus the plain way is when we discuss careers. For Amish men, as I already stated, the careers are limited, at least compared to the English. That being said, the English men have a vast variety more options and opportunities when it comes to careers. Really, whatever an outside man wants to set his heart toward, he can, though he should probably be at least somewhat good at it, right? Politics, television, banking, sailing, and the list goes on and on. The possibilities are endless.

       Does this mean the English man is happier, having all these choices? That might seem like the logical conclusion, but I certainly wouldn’t say that it is actually true that they are. Perhaps in some instances, especially in the case that an Amish man wants to do more, but, in general, I think the happiness would be similar in both groups. Though perhaps the Amish are happier at the end of the day. Sometimes having too many choices can lead to paralysis, splitting interests, and thus perhaps take away from happiness.

       All of these glamorous things doesn’t mean the English man is wrong in his pursuit of them, as might be concluded. It’s just the way we live life, as English people. We are use to things being over-the-top in a lot of different areas. In the same way, the Amish are use to things being simpler, and they may not even want to change if it was allowed. I don’t know. The Amish prove that we don’t have to have all the fixings to be happy. Quite to the contrary. In view of that, we understand that people respond to us by who we are, and not by what we have. Sure, interesting things peak interest; that’s only common sense. But having those things don’t make us better than others or more liked by people typically.

       What we have in the world in terms of possessions is only part of it. It is only a piece, really. Hopefully, in our independent worlds, we have family we love and friends we care about. As far as possessions, we are trained from a child how to hold them in our minds. This isn’t exactly the same for everyone. We learn to value distinctive things depending on our individual likes. With the Amish, since everything strives toward collective, I don’t think possessions, their interest, the buying and the selling of them, becomes as personal. Sure, they buy and sell, but it just doesn’t seem like there is as much as an emphasis on the love of those possessions. Interestingly enough, dare I say it, it seems like the focus is more on individuals than possessions in general. Not saying all English focus just as much on possessions as people, but seems we definitely focus more on possessions.

       What is stirring is that there can even be glamour when it comes to child rearing, or having children in the first place. The excitement of having the kid, with buying the clothes, setting up the kid’s room for arrival, and all the toys and everything else just adds to the specialness that we are talking about here, of which the Amish don’t experience on near as big a scale. While non-Amish people may think about all these external things, are they thinking about the internal things? Are the thinking about preparation in that they were getting ‘mentally’ ready to be able to nurture the child, to teach him or her in good and right ways? There isn’t going to be a society to bring the child in, unlike the Amish, where everybody believes and practices the same thing. So, it’s going to be harder.

       A person from the regular society might fire back and say, “The Amish are too overbearing. They are too disciplinary. They control their children. They prevent their growth toward individualism, and any unique things they might want to do with their life. There is not good understanding of a person’s wants and desires.” Like I’ve already touched on, this is a trade off. It’s a trade off in the plain society in that while you have the strong societal and cultural foundation, there are limitations to what people can do with their lives, especially in anything outside of their setting, which is quite a lot. For the person who wants to be a historian, a race car driver, auto mechanic, work in television—anything like these careers isn’t happening unless one grows up, decides it, and doesn’t join church.

       Then comes the whole thing of education, which is all tied into this. Because the Amish only go to school through the eighth grade, that means there is a lot they do not learn. And even within those early grade-school years I’m sure certain topics are prohibited. I do like their emphasis on teaching from a creation standpoint; I think a lot of people could benefit from that. What about the good scientific things they do not learn? Or the historical matters? Or, the beautiful English writings from those of old they don’t study? I mean do they study Shakespeare, or Donne, or Dickinson? Maybe they do? Probably not. No college education then, either.

       It all comes back to happiness, however. With all that the outsiders have in addition to the Amish, I think we can definitively say they are not substantially happier. At least, in observation, all the busy professionals don’t seem to be. I think we can say they don’t have a higher level of happiness at all. I even think it could be surmised that Amish are happier in some instances. So, with that being said, it only leaves us to scratch our heads, and wonder further about the whole thing. I mean, isn’t this why we are so interested in the Amish to begin with? We are trying to figure out what they have that we don’t.

- Daniel Litton

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