This is a clip about an amazing woman who lived alone in a cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. She had no running water, nor conveniences. A documentary was made about her (it is referenced in the clip). I watched it years ago and it is a truly amazing story.
It is well worth watching if you can find the time. Just go on YouTube and type in Hannah Hauxwell and you will find it.
A truly incredible story.
Patty
I recently watched a number of videos about Amish people in America. There are a wide variety of Amish, from Beachy Amish who drive cars and cellular phones, to Swartzentruber Amish who aren’t even allowed indoor plumbing. While I don’t agree with their religious proscriptions as a reason for these various regulations, I wholeheartedly agree that we should live closer to the land, should be as self sufficient as is reasonably possible and that we should help one another as a community; not because of some forced government regulation, but because of a voluntary sense of community support.
One other thing I am absolutely convinced of is that television has harmed families. Even the Beachy Amish do not have television in their homes, and I salute them for it. I’ve heard television referred to as a “worship box”, and especially back in the days of broadcast TV from the big three networks, a lot of people scheduled their family lives around the broadcast times of their favorite shows.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen children shushed, or even scolded for interrupting a TV show, and while I understand wanting to see a favored program, I can’t imagine how anyone could think that a beam of electrons and a soundtrack could ever be more important than a living human being, in our direct presence.
BTW, one of the reasons that many Amish do not have telephones is because their community standards encourage them to speak directly to others, face-to-face. I concur. One place I worked, face-to-face communication was all but extinct. We were supposed to use IM (Instant Messaging) and even phone calls were strongly discouraged. The morale was in the gutter, and employee retention was low. “Employee engagement”, the sense that an employee was appreciated and felt that they fit in, was around 20%, which is to say abysmally low, but I never saw any meaningful effort to improve the quality of communications above that of IMs, which is essentially the business equivalent of texting.
Yes I had a temp job a few years ago and all inter-employee communication had to be by email. Even if the persons office was right across from you. It was ridiculous. I think that company is gone now.
Such a practice is stultifying to the human spirit. We are social creatures, and need social interaction. Water cooler talk is actually very important, IMHO. The employer I referenced earlier, had major problems, but the little corner of the business I was hired into was the exception, with a highly personable director who saw the value of personal interaction and made it part of how our department functioned. Of course, he had to be fired, because he wasn’t part of making us into zombies. I don’t miss that job, one little bit.
Sounds awful.
It truly was.