Aeon Magazine Special - Part I

The Amish: a nuanced view from an Amish business owner.

By Kevin William

Aeon Magazine is a wonderful publication based in the United Kingdom.  They specialize in long-form philosophical pieces about all sorts of topics. I love the magazine and their eclectic mix of stories.  Love the magazine so much that I decided I wanted to write for it!:) So this Friday I'll have an essay appearing in Aeon about what I think the future of the Amish looks like.  Stay tuned, I will post a link to the essay for you all to enjoy and consider.

In the meantime, Aeon posted awonderful video about Amish culture this week.  This mini-documentary has been around and I've even linked to it before, but it is so good I wanted to share it again.

The video features Dennis Hoschtetler just doing an amazing job explaining Amish life, explaining the difficult balance between work and family and church.  The video was done extraordinarily tastefully with the lighting muted just enough to obscure Dennis's face in a respectful way.  Now, I can tell you that there are many, many Amish people would not have gone that far with the photography.   The video never says where it was filmed but at the end there's a hint that the majority of people would probably just miss, but people familiar with this Amish settlement will catch.  I'm not going to be a "spoiler", you have to watch the video to find out (if you see the "hint" you can "Google" the hint and that'll tell you where this was filmed).  I will say, though, that this particular Amish community is one of the most progressive out there in terms of "pushing the envelope" of technology, etc.

Dennis just comes across as a really thoughtful, philosophical and articulate man. So if you really want a great glimpse into how the Amish are living now and thinking now in one of the most progressive communities (yet, I think, on some level his concerns and dreams mirror those even in more conservative ones), you won't want to miss this video. Click here to watch!