Good Monday Morning!

After a rather leisurely restful day, it will be hard to get moving and into gear! I have already been up for a couple of hours, but was busy washing dishes (that seem to multiply every night under the cover of darkness) and laundry. I will not even comment on the (endless) amount of laundry I do!

Mark had rented a documentary from Netflix that he thought I might enjoy. It was entitled Devil's Playground ; it turned out to be a very disturbing look at the Amish custom of "rumspringa". This is a tradition that when a young person turns 16 years of age, they are released into the "english" world to experience sex, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and whatever other unsavory vices they might like to try....thus, the title.

As I watched this documentary unravel, there were a few kids that were the "main characters". My heart grew so heavy at some points and I found this so upsetting. The fact that these people keep themselves so set apart from the world, only to release their youngsters into it so they may "sew their wild oats" before joining the church seems so ludicrous and without wisdom to me. I find it amazing that the parents can simply turn their kids out without holding back. I could never do that....

I lived in a town where there were a great number of Amish families and I had never heard of this custom before. I do know that there were dome rather humorous stories about the Amish and some of the things they did, but they were "harmless" and funny! One of them involved a certain "rabblerouser" Amishman who happened to own a car. Seems he kept it in his barn and whenever he wanted to drive it, he would don a football helmet and drive on down the road so as not to be recognized by his peers. I have no idea if this was true or not, but the kid who told me happened to be the son of the police chief in the small town, so it could quite likely be true!

I guess that the bottom line in this documentary is that people are people, and will seek after destructive behaviors if left on their own with no accountability. After watching the entire story, I went back and re watched it with the director and those involved in making the story talking about it as it ran. In the end, one of the youngster's pretty much ruined his life and is now serving time. He was a rather remarkable young fellow....charismatic, charming, and so much going for him. In the end, it seems part of his destruction was his indecisiveness.... he could not choose whether he was Amish or "english".

After watching this, I came down and we watched the Sabres vs the Philadelphia Flyers game. It was a little disappointing, as the Sabres lost! (to the last team in the east?) Ah well, it was OK, because in watching the game, it became obvious to me that none of the players were going to get rough....with the playoffs beginning this week, all of the players need to be in top physical shape. To get injured in a game that really didn't even matter....well, why bother? It was an entertaining game, as the goalie for Philly was just recently sent there from the Sabres so they could pick up Danius Zubrus.

After the game, we had our dinner and spent the rest of the day just relaxing. Oh, as I was preparing dinner, Mrs Doe, Re, Mi, and Fa were outside the kitchen window, grazing like crazy on the new shoots of grass. I was making broccoli, so I went to the french doors and calmly talked to Doe. She wasn't afraid at all and watched as I pitched the stem her way. After I was inside the house, she went over and looked at it, but passed it by. Phooey....I thought she would eat it!

I hope you enjoyed your day! It looked more like a Thanksgiving or Christmas Day here with the sudden spritzes of snow!