YOUR VIEW: Amish family values should be guide

Opinion

Discussion

August 15, 2010

Special report Special to the Daily Times The Glasgow Daily Times Sun Aug 15, 2010, 06:41 AM CDT

GLASGOW — Dear Editor,

A few days ago I cut a some hay here on the farm and decided to have it square baled. I knew it wouldn’t make a lot because it was the second cutting and the area covered only a small amount of ground.

As I have done for several years, I contacted my Amish neighbor about getting him and his son to help load the bales. Even though the hot weather lately has been nearly unbearable, he let me know that when the hay is baled they would be right on over to help.

About the time I got the hay raked, the tractor and baler arrived. That’s when I hooked my tractor to the wagon and waited for the Amish to come. By this time the sun felt like an oven and it was getting hotter by the minute. Several minutes passed and I thought, “Where’s my promised help, it’s past time for them to come.” Then the thought hit me that they are on slow time and won’t be here for another 30 minutes or so.

It wasn’t long before I heard some kids hollering and said to myself, “Who in the world is that?” I looked up and it was the Amish man, his older son plus two of his younger sons and one of his daughters coming across the field to the hay wagon. I climbed on my tractor and everyone else took their places. The Amish father stacked the hay on the wagon while the eldest son walked along, handing up bales.

The smaller boys, who looked to be around five or six years old, stayed on the wagon with their father. The young girl, appearing to be about 12 years of age, stayed on the ground, picking up some of the bales alongside her brother. As the stifling heat beamed down, I kept the tractor just barely moving, using the clutch often to stop beside the bales. As we moved to the last windrow, and in anticipation of the final bale, I asked the young girl if she was “ready to go to the barn and get an ice cold can of soda pop.”

She turned and looked at me with a smile, not saying a word. That’s when I saw her brother whisper something in her ear. I don’t know what was said, but about that time their father hollered out to me, “That’s the reason the young ones came, they knew you would have cans of cold drinks for them.” And they were right. When the load of hay got to the barn the five-gallon cooler that was full of ice water and cans of ice cold soda pop became a delectable treat for everyone.

I’ve always heard the more you have, the more you want. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know. I do believe the more we have the more we take for granted. I know it sure didn’t take much to make these Amish kids happy. Sometimes I think many children today have so many things that their value becomes meaningless to them. I don’t know precisely what the lesson here is, but I do believe there is one and maybe it applies to all of us.

David Keith

Smiths Grove

Text Only

Opinion

Americans need to change attitudes
There’s something inherently wrong with this country’s societal standards when a mother is harassed and humiliated for breastfeeding her child in public, while any partial or complete display of the same woman’s breasts in the media or on the street for the purpose of sexual objectification would seem acceptable to many Americans, male and female alike.

February 10, 2012
Near miss on super prediction
Let’s take a step into the past my seven faithful readers and review some predictions made in this space in early September. (Too bad it wasn’t late September and we could borrow the line “should be back in school.”)

February 4, 2012
Redistricting plans equally indefensible
I don’t know how Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd will rule in the re-districting case. Nor am I a constitutional attorney, so I can’t say with any authority the maps drawn by the Democratic controlled House to benefit Democrats or the one drawn by the Republican Senate to benefit Republicans are constitutional.

February 4, 2012
Comer sets good example
Newly elected Ag Commissioner Jamie Comer, a Gamaliel Republican, requested an audit of the department upon his taking the position earlier this month.

January 14, 2012
Fortis will be good partner
I put shoulder to the wheel in search of photos Thursday morning. First, there was an ancient bread van parked amongst some saplings on the side of which there was a woman’s name painted in white, puffy letters. Whose van might that be and I wonder if it comes with the for sale property?

January 7, 2012
Farewell to Gatewood
As word spread of Gatewood Galbraith’s passing, the same phrase was heard repeatedly: “Gatewood was a colorful character.”

January 7, 2012
Computers should make records easier to get
The digital revolution was supposed to make record-keeping easier and less costly for companies. Therefore it should make things simpler for the public or news outlets seeking open records to find them.

December 31, 2011
Resolutions for the new year
New Year’s is the time for resolutions, a lot of which won’t last until spring.

December 31, 2011
Things to rejoice this Christmas
The year that will soon lapse has been tough. It has been a year of immovable politics; a year of contentious state elections; a year of absurd gesticulations by certain fiscal court members.

December 24, 2011
YOUR VIEWS: Remember Christ’s birth
December 23, 2011
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

YOUR VIEW: Amish family values should be guide

Site Map