It has been one heck of ride this past week for our economy. The bailouts of the several financial institutions and the bankruptcy of another old prestigious firm were stunning. By some estimates, American taxpayers could be footing the bill for close to a trillion dollars. Hard to believe.

But please note, gentle friends, how much money is forthcoming
for health care: zero. There is something wrong with our priorities.But even than that, our government
has made our lives more complicated. It would be good if we could simplify our lives.

In her book Plain and Simple, Sue Bender talks about how she learned to simplify her life from a group of Amish people who live somewhere in the Midwest. Their method of doing health care is simple and effective, which can teach us a lesson about not only about economics, but about human dignity.

Ms. Bender tells a story about a girl who got seriously sick and needed to go to a hospital

A Better Alternative “When circumstances change, it is time to roll up our sleeves and do some problem solving. It’s time to use whatever creativity and resourcefulness we have. ‘Whose fault is it?’ becomes not just an academic exercise, but a waste of time. In all of human history, mistakes are made. We say things we wish we hadn’t. We do things we regret. One option is to condemn all humanity. A better alternative, to my way of thinking, is to figure out what to build next.” —The Rev. Barbara Merritt, in the 2007 UU Meditation Manual Amethyst Beach

in Chicago. The Amish community then responded simply by having every adult member chip in some money to pay for expenses. That is the Amish way of doing health care. That seems to me the most efficient, simple and humane. It’s too bad we could not do the same.

But that would require a different mindset, one that few of us, I dare say, would accept. We prize our individuality. We like the idea of being unique and somewhat
different. And we expect people to rise or fall based on their individual efforts. And we even accept some of the costs of our individuality, which are loneliness, alienation, segregation, and social stratification. It would not be easy for us to adjust to an Amish life style in which schooling past middle school is frown upon and members can be shunned for having religious questions.

But still, we can learn from the Amish. They teach us something about simplicity and importance of valuing all children. The story about the girl in the hospital shows that they prize all the children in their community, indeed, all members of their society. Every child is entitled to health care because every child belongs to their group and not just to one particular family.

It is different for the rest of us. We do value our own children — very much — but as a society, we tend not to have much concern for other people’s children, especially poor children, foreign children or strange children.

With the philosophy of the Amish it is easy to see that their children are well cared for, both materially and spiritually. What could be more efficient, simple and humane? Their system of economy and humanity certainly makes more sense than the crazy greedy and slovenly stupid way our major corporations and national government
are run. Ah, if we all could be so simple.

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