It is rare but beautiful in a writer’s life when something you are writing about strikes a deep and positive chord in people and goes on for days, weeks, even months, and years.

For me, the Miller family’s decision to set up their new home almost right next to mine is something of a rare happening, like a big red shooting star in the sky.

They will be here for years, and so will I, so that is a major impact on my writing. It will last a long time.

The Amish are not the only thing I intend to write about it, but I will write about it as long as it lasts and as long as people are so intensely interested in their lives, and my sudden connection to this family.

My friendship with Moise is real, and I am close to several people in his family. This presages a real change in my life.

The response to my writing touches me.

I am thinking about why there is so much interest in the Amish, so much curiosity about their lives, and so much admiration for them and controversy.

The animal rights movement has targeted them, and many women are uncomfortable at the role women play in Amish communities; many have as many as 13 children.

I want to take care not to romanticize the Amish; that’s not good writing or meaningful thinking. All lives are hard; no life is perfect, no faith without flaws. The Amish life is tough and unyielding.

It is never healthy to want to live the life of others.

But there is also great power and meaning in the Amish way; it is, in a way, a mirror of how many of us might wish to live or do wish to live, not in every respect but many.

I have no doubt already that if we all lived like the Amish, we could very well save the world. Plainness and simplicity, and contemplation are not just for monks and priests; they are an integral part of plain life.

As I continue my journey with Moise and his family, I hope to be thoughtful, sensitive, honest, and open. Here are some of the reasons I am so drawn to this family and why so many others might be.

They believe in God. In America, belief in God was nearly universal until fairly recently. It gave our lives comfort, guidance, a shared sense of morality and ethics, and comfort in a sometimes brutal world.

I’ve never been a huge fan of organized religion, but the Judeo-Christian tradition in America did provide a framework for morality, honesty,  and compassion. We are sorely missing those values today. They are very much present in the Amish world.

The major religions all preached that if something bad happened, it was God’s choice and decision, and it needed to be accepted and respected. This is the centerpiece of the Amish faith.

As the iron belief in God withered in America, starting in the ’60s with TV, and accelerated in our time with the advent of social media, life became more confusing.  Families broke up, people moved far from home, church attendance has steadily declined, technology has eroded community. Most Americans sit at home for hours looking at screens.

The Amish spend hours talking to each other and members of their community. Some people turn to hatred and anger to find community; the Amish reject hatred and anger in all of its forms.

Morality for most Americans is no longer universally accepted by many but has become diverse and individual. Without heaven and hell to guide behavior, there are fewer consequences to lying, cheating, hating.

The Amish believe strongly that kindness will be rewarded, cruelty punished.

When I look in the mirror of the Amish society, I am troubled by our own culture, which is increasingly harsh, aspiritual, angry, and without empathy. I feel I have a lot to learn from these people, who are spiritual, content, and with great empathy for one another.

One of the reasons the Amish are so free to live their own lives and not be cowed or corrupted by other people is their absolute faith in God.

It isn’t that they don’t feel pain – when two of Moise and Barbara’s daughters were kidnapped,  it was horrible for them.

But they also believed it was, in some way, God’s will that they are returned to them.

They never made light of it, but they accepted it. They worship Jesus Christ, and they embrace his call for forgiveness, so they forgive, which makes it harder to hate and regret.

They Reject Technology: One Amish rule of life is that if they didn’t do something four hundred years ago, then they don’t do it now.

There is no technology in their homes or lives, no phones ringing, no e-mail, no Facebook or Twitter, no cable news or radio, no electricity, no cell phones or computers.

Technology dominates much of our lives; family and faith dominate theirs.

Imagine how less stressful our lives would be if all of those things were removed. Less hatred, conspiracy, busybodies, a life of peace that Thoreau always dreamed of but could never quite attain, like the rest of us.

It is stunning to see how different the Amish children I am meeting are from American children, raised and parented on screens and often unable to have a conversation with a real human in real-time.

The Amich Are Close To Nature, Animals: Psychologists believe it is unnatural and unhealthy to live in a world apart from nature and animals. The Amish live in nature and work with animals.

Although some animal rights groups claim they mistreat their animals, I have found it a frequently unfair generalization. The Amish do not see their horses and dogs as pets, but the ones I know treat them well and value them greatly.

Like the New York Carriage Drivers, the Amish have found a way to keep working animals in their world and ours. I salute them for that. Anything that keeps domestic animals alive and in our world is sacred to me.

The Amish lifestyle is kind to the environment, provides no toxic chemicals or gases,  uses no fuel, and recycles naturally.

They Make What They Need: The Amish communities take care of one another. They also carefully consider anything they need or might want to purchase.

This is perhaps the core ethos of the simple and plain life they pursue. There is no technology, but there are also no electric bills, insurance payments, car payments,  water bills, loans of any kind, IRA payments, credit card bills, grocery bills (on an Amish farm), health care payments,  cable payments, heating oil bills, fuel bills.

They make their own clothes, don’t believe in dentistry, and like early American farmers, don’t need to hire laborers – they have large families. If the roof needs work, they all pitch in and fix it.

If at all possible, they make what they need. They grow their own food, dig their own wells. They help one another build their houses and barns. If their homes are damaged or destroyed, their church will pay for a new one.

When the elderly get sick, the church takes care of them.

The plain and simple life – very often neither – takes many common burdens off their shoulders.  How different my life would be if I didn’t have to pay these bills, had total faith in God, had no computer or Iphone,  and could make most of what I needed.

The Amish life would not work for me in many ways. I don’t want to have 13 kids or work from 5 a.m. to dusk. I wish I had less technology in my life, but I would want some. It has made my work possible.

My belief in a God I can trust completely is not as strong or clear as theirs. I would be an infidel or heretic in their world. And wasteful. But they are already inspiring me to be more thoughtful about what I eat and buy.

I most respect the Amish world because of their commitment to the way they live, their willingness to forgive, their gentleness, and their simplicity.

They don’t apply for Social Security numbers, have Medicare Cards, install fire alarms or smoke detectors, file lawsuits, hate people who differ from them – which is almost everyone.

Their lives center in great measure on their large families and extended communities. They are independent, work hard,  and do not expect others to take care of them.

Community is an essential element in the lives of the Amish. Almost all human beings yearn for the community – friends, families, neighborhoods, colleagues and co-workers, sports teams, artists, even food.

But fewer and fewer of us find communities in a mobile and disconnected world distracted by screens and computers and cellphones, divorce, children who leave to work, bitter political divisions, hours spend with screens, not neighbors.

The Amish center their lives around their very tight communities; they constantly move back and forth, helping other families, worshipping together, building one another’s sheds and barns and houses, feeding one another, fighting zoning boards and regulations together.

The things government sometimes requires are often things the Amish simply cannot do – like public schools for their children.

When I think about it, the Amish have managed some of life’s most stressful and difficult challenges for most people:  money, community, technology, self-sufficiency, the environment, faith, and security.

Life is a tradeoff. For everything they give up, they do something in return. Their life requires large families, strong communities, absolute faith, and hard, hard work.

We each have to decide what we are willing to give up in exchange for peace and meaning.

But the way the Amish live has appeal to many of us. We want to know more.

It is in many respects the life we would wish in some parts but cannot have in others.

Most of us are not happy with the stresses and demands and pressures of life or the money pressures a capitalistic culture demands. The Amish have addressed many of these issues honestly and authentically.

I am drawn to that. I think many other people are fascinated by it as well. It is not for everyone, but a part of almost everyone wants some of the things it offers.

The journey begins.