I have a theory: most of us wouldn’t last a day\h without electricity. You wouldn’t be able to get\h\h
to—or log onto—work or school; your perishable\h foods would perish; and if you were bored,\h\h
you couldn’t just pull up an HAI video; you’d\h have to wait for me to come to town and whisper\h\h
you sweet nothings about airline logistics, or\h worse, read a book. For most of us, living in\h\h
modern society without modern conveniences would\h be a nightmare. But that’s just because most of\h\h
us aren’t Amish. And if you are Amish, put that\h phone down, Ezekiel! It’s unbecoming! Though we\h\h
imagine the Amish as totally shunning electricity,\h technology, and a good time, the truth is more\h\h
complicated. In today’s interconnected economy,\h permanent isolation from the modern world is\h\h
impractical, so the Amish rely on surprisingly\h complex electricity-free and electricity-lite\h\h
technology solutions to make it work. So how\h exactly do Amish communities navigate the modern\h\h
world with as little electricity as possible? All those guys and gals driving horse-drawn\h\h
carriages are part of the Old Order\h Amish-Mennonite church, which originated\h\h
in Europe as a Mennonite sect with a guy named\h Jakob Ammann—who believed shunning individuals\h\h
was good for them, and that lying should result\h in banishment from the church. Shockingly,\h\h
other people in Europe didn’t vibe with that,\h probably because of how much they loved lying\h\h
and hanging out with sinners. So when William Penn\h founded a colony based on religious tolerance, the\h\h
Amish immigrated to Pennsylvania in droves. Their\h self-imposed separation reflects an extension of\h\h
the Mennonites’ New Testament-heavy philosophy:\h that they’re pilgrims whose journeys must exist\h\h
outside of modern society to redeem themselves\h after Adam and Eve’s big party foul in the Garden\h\h
of Eden. Basically, suffer now, get into heaven\h later. And this philosophy formed the Amish’s\h\h
central tenets: humility, forgiveness, brotherly\h love, nonresistance, and submission, which\h\h
each 75-person Amish enclave codifies in their\h community’s “ordnung”—the German word for order,\h\h
and the Amish word for super-esoteric rules. Since\h the Amish religion is decentralized, each group is\h\h
autonomous, which means there are thousands\h of communities all with slightly different\h\h
ordnungs that dictate if, where, when, and how\h members can use electricity or modern appliances.\h
Generally speaking, though, the Amish ban\h the use of electricity from the common grid,\h\h
along with lame activities like going to school\h past eighth grade, joining the military, and\h\h
initiating a divorce, because as the Lord says:\h school is for nerds, the military is for jocks,\h\h
and marriage is forever. But, there’s a growing\h faction of Amish people who build furniture or\h\h
sell food to non-Amish people, and who want\h to know if the money’s really greener beyond\h\h
the commune. So, to get past Ordnungs, there’s an\h entire cottage industry that manufactures bespoke,\h\h
low-voltage Amish technology. Wanna know what\h one of its most popular inventions is? Nope,\h\h
not a bot that churns out hot romance novels like\h Happily Ever Amish, The Mysterious Amish Nanny,\h\h
or the more-to-the-point In Love with\h the Amish Nanny. It’s an Amish computer!\h\h
While it does run on electricity, it uses a\h battery pack instead of a wall plug, getting\h\h
around the no-electric-grid-electricity rule. It\h doesn’t have Internet, games, video, or music,\h\h
though it does have a Clippy-free word processor\h and a spreadsheet generator. That is to say, this\h\h
invention streamlines typing and accounting, and\h makes running an Amish business more efficient.\h\h
After all, if God wanted you crunching your own\h numbers, he’d let you stay in school past eighth\h\h
grade. To get around that pesky electric grid\h rule, some Amish communities have adopted giant\h\h
water wheels and wind turbines to power and heat\h their homes. There’s also a wide range of power\h\h
tools that rely on compressed air, rather than\h electricity, that some Amish communities have\h\h
adopted. They’re called “pneumatic tools” and\h they operate via air compressors: say Jeremiah’s\h\h
building this two thousand dollar Amish TV stand.\h He’ll hook up an air compressor to the coupler on\h\h
the bottom of his pneumatic power drill via hose.\h When the air enters the drill, it travels through\h\h
a pneumatic motor which converts the air’s energy\h into mechanical work. And bada-bing bada-boom:\h\h
TV stand. Drills, saws, table saws; if\h it can help Jeremiah build your TV stand,\h\h
someone’s engineered an electricity-free,\h hot-air alternative. Just don’t put a TV\h\h
on there while he’s around, it’s tacky. But more and more, Amish people are just\h\h
blatantly using technology to survive and thrive.\h And before you post your angry comment about why\h\h
I’m wrong about that, let me say this: each\h Amish community, and therefore, each ordnung,\h\h
differs, but the general trend has been towards\h relaxing their electricity rules while still\h\h
upholding other tenets of their community. See,\h it’s all about humility: if you're not posting\h\h
thirst traps on main or blabbing on the phone at\h Amish Bible study, then arguably, you're being\h\h
humble about using your phone. It just depends!\h We're talking about a religion like no other:\h\h
it has no hierarchy, no obvious overarching\h structure, basically just a bunch of decentralized\h\h
nodes all reliant on each other for community and\h survival. The thing is, accepting credit cards at\h\h
farm stands and advertising your fine furniture\h online creates more economic opportunity. And\h\h
while it's imperative that they remain the\h shining city on the hill Jesus told them to be,\h\h
it’s just as important to keep the city alive\h for generations—which is exactly what dipping\h\h
their toes in technology allows them\h to do. So if, a few years from now,\h\h
you see Amish tweens starting carriage-core\h Tik Tok trends, they’re not abandoning\h\h
their community… they’re just sustaining it. And I’m sure you, as a member of our mainstream,\h\h
technology-dependent society in 2023, are pretty\h busy. Between working, watching Netflix, and\h\h
hanging out with friends, it can be tough to fit\h in things like exercising or eating well—in fact,\h\h
I’m sure most of you who wanted to do more\h exercising and eating healthy for your New\h\h
Year’s resolutions have already given up\h on them. And while I would never tell you\h\h
to put your phone down and jog, I’m happy to\h tell you about HelloFresh. HelloFresh takes\h\h
all the stuff you don’t like about cooking\h out of the equation—which means no planning,\h\h
no standing in long grocery store lines, and no\h hassle whatsoever. I’ve been using them for years\h\h
to make healthy, chef-recommended meals in my own\h kitchen—and I have the recipe cards to prove it.\h\h
HelloFresh makes it so easy to cook tasty meals,\h and it’s cheaper than getting food delivered or\h\h
buying takeout, with more than 40 weekly recipes\h to choose from. Plus, their ingredients travel\h\h
from their farms to your table in less than seven\h days, which means you’re getting fresh, quality\h\h
ingredients on your plate. I love how customizable\h their boxes are: you can choose from a variety of\h\h
meal options, including calorie-smart, carb-smart,\h as well as family-friendly or veggie preferences,\h\h
so no matter what mood you’re in, or\h how many picky eaters are at your table,\h\h
you can whip up a delicious meal in no time.\h So make a healthy step towards your New Year’s\h\h
healthy eating goals today with HelloFresh by\h going to HelloFresh.com and using code HAI for\h\h
65 percent off plus free shipping. Your\h stomach, and your wallet, will thank you.