An Amish Buggy Ride

The Amish live and work here in Oklahoma and Arkansas quietly. They are peaceable folks and mind their business.

They farm and often run dairies and creameries where cheeses are produced and butter is churned to sell.  Some run bakeries and their breads and pastries are sought out.

This man in  his two-wheeled cart passes through town on an errand with a hat-topped sidekick enjoying the warmth of a summer day.

I wondered as a snapped a photo, what it is like to live the Amish life in the middle of a modern era. What could it be like for a child growing up in the plain ways when all around there is the present and the future passing swiftly and noisily by?

In many ways I think it would be a fine and wonderful way of life. In some ways I find it sad to live in the past as if it were somehow less dangerous.

I saw beauty here in the sheen of the horse’s sweaty sides, in the sky-blue shirt criss-crossed with black, in the little boy’s innocent pose on the board seat, in the red triangle and the ice chest perhaps carrying a cold soda for the child and driver to enjoy when they found themselves safely past the busy intersection.

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