Baggywrinkle

Not long ago an elderly man froze to death in his home in
Michigan when his electricity was turned off. The bill was
on the table along with the money to pay it. The temperature
in his home was 32 degrees. After his death his estate donated
$400,000 dollars to his favorite charity. How could this happen?

It would not have happened if his neighbors and his community
had been looking in on him. He was literally forgotten to death.


We cannot teach what we do not know.
Most of us are 2-3 generations removed
from the language of our forebearers.
We have also lost the ethics and morality
of community. So our children grow up feral
not knowing any better than to expect hand
outs from the centralized government. Why shouldn't
they. The family is broken and The centralized government
raised them.

How can you know what you have lost if you were never
taught. Please take a moment and allow the Amish to
remind you:

Saturday:

Today we had our first Amish friends here for supper. They have been very helpful in showing us some of the ropes around here. We wanted to thank them over supper. They came from about 4.5 miles with horse and buggy. They were very good friends with the people who lived here before us. Their horse knew the way they said without their lead. It took them about a ½ hour to get here. They hooked the horse up to our hitching post and came in for supper. I am amazed they really still travel in this archaic way.

We chatted over dinner, sloppy joes, corn casserole, chips, dilly beans and dilled pickles. We served cherry dump cake cooked on the woodstove (all these recipes coming in the book J) and hot coffee from the French press. They were very intrigued with the French press as they had never seen one before. They loved the coffee and noticed the great taste. I think we know what we will get them for Christmas.

{...}

Everything made a lot of sense with what they said. A lot of myths were debunked. They DO read the Bible on their own and they DO read books. In fact, they came from the library book sale this very day with a book about horses for our children as a gift. They buy books for their church (their sect) lending library. I was very surprised when I mentioned to them that I was formerly a nanny and they had just finished read the NY Best Time Seller, The Nanny Diaries…?? I didn't ask much about that J.

They were very respectful to us and said they admired the courage to leave living on grid and that it took a lot of guts to do it. They wondered if we were getting a lot of "flack" from friends and family. We told them yes and no. They said, "Don't worry if people do not understand why you are doing this, they are missing out on the freedom it really is bringing you". They said that going without electricity is easy, it's the other things being Amish is hard about. You must get along with your church family, it is not an option. These people are you sole support, your community, even your insurance. You see the everyday at times. When you build or buy a home, these same people self-insure your home with you that in event of fire they will rebuild it; you do the same for them, even if you are not "fond" of them. They said it's something they have really had to learn and still are. Being Amish in "D's" words provides 100% security from the cradle to the grave. They are very close knit and they help each other daily in getting all the farm work finished. They do not go anything alone. If someone needs to butcher a cow and can 49 quarts of meat, then you do it together on Monday and then on Tuesday you go to someone else's farm and you help them. You eat together, you raise your children together and you do so many things even we would not do as immediate family together. Even Christmas baking, 30 ladies will get together and bake on a large army surplus size stove and then divvy up all the goodies at the end and then you have your baking done in about ½ day and in a very large quantity. It's really neat. I wish it could be like that for us but honestly I would have to really mature a lot in the people area as I seem to be more of a loaner J… Yes, I really just said that…


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A Spoiled Generation
By Eli Stoll 7-77

Several years ago I noticed a small cartoon in a newspaper that caught my attention. It showed a picture of a living room in a typical modern home.
A brightly lighted and gaily decorated Christmas tree was in one corner. A ten year old boy stood in the middle of a wide assortment of toys he
had just unwrapped. {...}

It was a simple cartoon but it told a complete story. He held the last gift in his hands with a frown on his face. The caption was; "You mean this is
all I get?"

What a spoiled child! His parents had spent a couple hundred dollars on several dozen toys gadgets, and playthings. Instead of being awed and grateful,
he complained because there wasn't more. Instead of complaining, his eyes should have been shining and his lips saying, "You mean I get all THIS!"

However it is hard to believe that a child could be so spoiled, the truth is that all of us have more in common with this child than we like to think.
In a way, all of us have become spoiled children, unbelieveably blessed in material things, and yet standing in the midst of plenty and waste and asking,
"You mean this is all I get?"

We have life rather easy compared to our forbears. They were hunted, persecuted, tortured, and killed. The government passed special laws against them.
{...}

Our immigrant fathers toiled with their axes and hoes to wrest a living from thick forests and tree stump covered. We have rich dark soil, loose and
fertile and productive, and teams of horses to work it with. They had to make almost everything, from their axe handles to their homespun clothing.
We go to town and buy what we want. No weary hours working into the night carving, weaving, spinning.

We have it easy. We have grown fat, soft, lazy, and spoiled [mind you, this is an Amishman talking to the Amish!]. We have forgotten how to suffer, and
refuse to even be inconvenienced. Everything has to be handy {...}

The luxuries of one generation become the necessities of the next. Let's look at just one area of life, our water supply. Our forefathers carried water
from a nearby spring. Many trips for water morning, evening, and even through the day. It was tiresome, timeconsuming labor, but it was accepted without
question because it had to be done.

Gradually as homes became more permanent wells became common. What a luxury this must have seemed! A well within a hundred feet of the house

{...}

After a generation pumps came on the scene. No more straining backs and tired aching arms, pulling the rope to bring up a bucket of water.

{...}

Nevertheless, what one generation thought was easy the next found tiring. They felt pumping water by hand was a hardship and took so long.

{...}

Fill a tea kettle, did you say? What for? To heat water to wash the dishes? Ha, guess again. That's not for us. We're the next generation. Who
has time to heat water when we want it?

{...}

That brings us to the present. What will the next generation want? {...} What we appreciate, our children take for granted.

Satan likes to make us believe that if we only had this, or that, we could be so much happier. If only the Church would allow this, we'd be satisifed.
We couldn't ask for more. We'd be content.

Would it really work that way? {...}

Then are they contented? Are they satisfied with what they have? The answer is obvious. One look at the headlines of a newspaper should convince
anyone. Riots. Strikes. Demands. Boycotts. Protests. Marches. Welfare. Unrest. Crime. Divorce. Suicide. Rebellions. Violence. Tension.

There never was a generation that had so much and appreciated it so little. Young people grow up and never lift a finger to work. Still they are
dissatisfied and run away by the thousands. No, people of the world are not content with all the luxuries they have. Jesus said long ago, "A man's
life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses (Luke: 12:15)

The time has come for each of us to stop and ask some questions. Where are we as [plain] people? Where have we come from? Where are we going?
What factors have brought us to where we are today?

{...}


We don't need more conveniences as much as we need more convictions. In this world of emphasis on luxury and earthly posessions, it may be
difficult to be content with little. But it is impossible to be content with much.


************************************************** *****************************************

We behave like spoiled children. Greed and lust for power has the insiders eating sixty four thousand dollar lunches while children in this world
go to bed hungry? Raised feral, we behave feral hiding in our houses and our cars afraid to venture out to assist each other. Meanwhile the
insiders are forging the shackles to bind you, the outsider slaves.

My wife prepared a fine spaghetti dinner for her children which they all enjoyed and complimented her on. After dinner she was clearing the table
and she asked her eldest daughter for help cleaning up. The feral child replied, "F--- y'alls dishes, I'm going to my trailer."

Folks, we get the government, and the children we deserve. In the soil of our lust, greed, and
apathy lie the seeds of the next holocaust.

That is all I have to say.