Simplicity as a Choice

It is one thing to live poor when you are poor. It is quite another to live poor when you are rich. The former is expected. The latter is shocking and revolutionary. It goes against the grain. It's like cats and dogs living together.

This is why the Amish strike us as such a queer bunch of people. They drive buggies instead of cars. They make their meals from scratch instead of hitting the drive thru at McDonald's. They don't watch television. Everyone else interprets them as isolated and insular. They are somehow antisocial. But the reality is far different.

Amish people are as regular and normal as almost anyone else. Some of them even use cellphones and the internet within limits. But they choose to live in a simpler way because they realize that technology isn't always a blessing. You might consider this idea foolish until I point out someone running the block, riding a bike, or rowing on a machine in order to get fit. People do this to make up for the loss of physical labor made possible by all of our technology.

The Amish ask themselves a fundamental question concerning technology. Will it make my life better? Or will it erode my spiritual experience, my time with family, and put me in a cycle of acquisition and envy?

I can tell you that I have no intentions of ditching my computer or my car. But I do ask myself if the stuff in my life matches what I want to do with my life. This is the lesson of the Amish. Don't follow the herd. Live in a deliberate manner.

Regular readers of my blog know that I am a fan of Matthew Crawford and Shop Class as Soulcraft. Crawford is like the Amish in that he has chosen to live in a deliberate manner concerning his occupation. He chooses to fix motorcycles instead of working in a suit-and-tie profession. He doesn't have to do this. He chooses to do this, and some people think he is nuts. The goal should be money and status. It shouldn't be dirt and job satisfaction.

The fact is that the choice makes all the difference. Rock climbing bums think office dwellers are nuts for spending their days trapped in a cubicle. The office dwellers think the rock climbing bums are nuts for sleeping in a bivuoac on the side of a rock face. But there is no tragedy because these are choices people have made. Hell ceases to be hell when you choose to live there.

The simple life is exactly like that. You decide to own your choices, and it gives you a feeling of power and freedom. You are living exactly the way you chose to live.

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