Living a Simple Life

Plain handmade clothing, colorful patchwork quilts against the cold winter nights, kerosene lamps and candles and a pale of fresh whole milk. That's what you'll find at the end of a short drive just west of our nation's birthplace; Philadelphia, Pa. Nestled comfortably in the slow rolling hills of Lancaster County, a community of simple folk has thrived since before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Virtually unchanged for more than two centuries, a search for living examples of the simple life would inevitably conclude at the doorstep of these community minded agrarians.

Thomas Jefferson must have had the Amish in mind when, in 1785, in a letter to John Jay he wrote: "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds."

Many Americans have had good reason to re-evaluate their list of priorities in the past several decades and it seems a good time to revisit the so called American dream. Originally this dream was summed up in a simple phrase: "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These sentiments of the Declaration of Independence would later find the spirit of their philosophical ideal embodied in an open invitation to the oppressed and down trodden of the world:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightening, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Located on the base of the Statue of Liberty, this invitation to the poor, tired, huddled masses sums up what was once the American dream. For millions it meant freedom from tyranny, oppression and cruel servitude beneath the crushing weight of petty dictators, robber barons and feudal lords. It held the promise of a land where one could go about the business of life and living on an even playing field where everyone was thought of as equals in possession

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