Sabbaticals

 I so wish my employer would give a sabbatical leave of absence if you've been employed for 15 or 20 year.  Maybe a 3-6 month leave of absence.  Maybe at partial salary or something.  I don't know.

What would I do if I had that opportunity?  Immerse myself in Amish culture.  Like to to Pennsylvania or Ohio and be part of their community for a while.  To live without the modern technologies and conveniences we take for granted.  Do things the old way.  Do manual labor.  Learn that we don't need all these new fangled things like TV, radio, social media, modern appliances, computers or cars.  I think it'd be interesting to rely on face to face communication, community effort and living off the land.

When I worked in Florida, the amish people would be frequent visitors in the summer.  There were two parts of time they would stay.  It is interesting because they got there via airplane and often times one member of the family had a cell phone.  Gasp.  

Observation - the dressed simpler and they looked way healthier than any other group of people in the terminal.  Probably because they don't consume the garbage of the modern world with their mouths, ears or eyes.  Plus they don't rely on many modern technologies.  They are industrious and productive people.  Most of their efforts remain in the community - unless it's furniture, quilts or pies.  That is exported out of their communities for the rest of us to consume.  Interesting.