According to Steven Nolt in A History of the Amish, the split between the tradition-minded Old Order Amish and the change-minded Amish Mennonites happened around 1865, though gradually and not due to any single event. Among the Amish Mennonites there was a bishop named Henry Egly who had a powerful conversion experience during an illness in the 1840s. Whether the influence of American evangelicalism and revivalism on him came before or after this experience is not clear from the text.
We no longer have a teenager in the house. Happy 20th birthday, Darcy!
Sometimes you have neighbors who help clear the whole neighborhood of snow. Sometimes you have people-who-live-in-the-neighborhood who clear a path from their front door to their car.
Matt Stansberry asks, “What does success look like in this situation?” For me, one measure will be that I do not close my heart to the suffering around me in a vain attempt at self-preservation. I will neither bathe myself in it, nor turn away from it. I will keep pursuing the hard path of love.
A bit of hope. Our kids will be better prepared to build something better after these next few awful years have passed.
Thinking about the fact that when Beatrix started at her current school in 6th grade, a few months into school Covid happened. Now, a few months into her senior year, this siege is happening.
These kids are going to be prepared for anything.
A lot of places are closed today, including the credit union’s branches. I’ll be working remotely. Temperatures will be in the single digits F. So much snow. Bless all those folks working to clear roads and get everyone back up and running.
As of 6am, we had ten inches. More is supposed to be on the way throughout the day. Good news: it is very light, dry snow. Easy to shovel.
One of the southern Indiana electric companies asked people to conserve energy over the next couple of days to prevent outages. The comments are full of people telling them to turn off the data centers and I love it.
In The Amish Way, the authors describe patience as one of the key characteristics of Amish life. The lessons of patience are built into the structures of their lives—even the church services are three hours long, with one twenty-minute hymn that always precedes the preaching.
I will admit to a certain amount of anxiety as we await the huge snowstorm to hit here. We’ve lived through worse, to be sure. Last night we were remembering one storm that hit early in our marriage.
“The Real Reasons Your Appliances Die Young,” via @isaacgreene. It’s not just planned obsolescence. It’s also
government regulations aimed a lower energy efficiency people just wanting something new price wars the inevitable breakage that comes with higher technology The writer also says that useful lives of appliances may not have decreased as much as you’d expect. Her advice if you want repairability and durability is either go dirt cheap or high end.
