5 Reasons Why the Amish are Lovely

5 Reasons Why the Amish are Lovely

“You May think us Amish are strange folk with our buggies, beards and barnyards”

SBS’s new heart warming reality show ‘Living with the Amish,’ offers an insight into the notoriously secluded Amish society. The program is atypical of the Amish community and was created to elucidate the advantages of living a pure and simple life. In fact, the show reminded me of Paris Hiltons idiotic show, ‘The Simple Life.’ Fortunately, ‘Living with the Amish’ has less psychopathic rich losers and lovelier, down-to-earth Amish folk. Although Amish culture is very strict about most things, rules and regulations brings everybody together with a sense of community. Writing this blog made me feel like a ‘reserved hippy,’ but at the same time, it did make me stop and think about what life is all about and how a few rules can actually inspire people to become an individual without superficial things like clothes.

1.           Bowl cuts look good?

There is something about that bowl-cut, fresh from the field look the Amish men have perfected.

I think this picture does most of the explaining for reason number one.

2.                   Uniform clothes:  

“I think it is a good thing that we dress the way we do, that way you don’t have somebody rich wearing the expensive clothes and somebody poor not wearing the top line.”

Although Amish clothes are extremely modest, they are certainly becoming. Girls have to wear dresses with sleeves down to the elbow, no shorter than 16 inches off the ground and toped off with a bonnet. Guys have to wear beltless pants – held up by suspenders and shirts only have 3 buttons

“The reason we only have three buttons is because if we have buttons all the way down, it is too tempting to open them up. You know first it will be one button… And pretty soon you will have your shirt open all the way down”

Jonathan, cute as a button, talks about why shirts only have three buttons.

3.                    The tucker looks fantastic.

The Amish use their own preservatives (“water, vinegar, sugar and spice”) to create what we would call ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ but what they would call ‘food.’ Fresh fish, handpicked pickles and apples that might not look perfect, but you know they haven’t been grown in a lab.

4.                    Enjoyment from cleaning.

Whilst your inner feminist might bang on about gender stereotyping and what not, the fact of the matter is that gender segregation is deeply ingrained into Amish culture. What I mean is, the women stay home and look after the house, cook food and do the washing. Whilst this might not be for everybody Marietta certainly made cleaning look like fun. A productive gas bagging session one might say.

“Few things are more important to us than visiting friends and family… This afternoon, the girls are going to visit my Aunt Erma to do what the ladies call ‘a canning folly.’ Where women join together to make the chores more fun.”

5.                    Transport

I don’t know if I have just watched too many romantic movies, but the buggies that they get around in are just too awesome. I know a lot of guys who invest in pimping out their car, getting mad rims and whatnot, but I think the real way to impress a lady is to hoon around in a horse drawn buggy.

All quotes are from Jonathan Hershberger :)