Plain and Simple

Sue Bender was a busy, driven Californian who worked hard at being special. She found herself unexpectedly obsessed with the Amish, a people who value being ordinary. This true account describes how she came to seek them out and live among them.

It began in a men's clothing store in New York, where a display of Amish quilts caught her. Their vivid colors and plain geometric patterns spoke to her so directly that she felt she had to follow the pull. She then looked for Amish families willing to let her visit and take part in their daily routines.

The book recounts her stays with two Amish families. Their homes had no television, telephone, electric light or refrigerator. Clutter and hurry gave way to quiet and calm daily ritual, and the line between the sacred and the everyday was hardly drawn at all. Their very different ideas about time, work and community led her to ask whether there is another way to live a good life.

The account is arranged in nine interrelated chapters, echoing the structure of a nine-patch quilt, and is charmingly illustrated. Back home, Bender, who describes herself as fast-paced, opinionated and often frazzled, reworks her own patchwork life. She brings in what she saw in the Amish and learns to value the patterns made by the different pieces of her own days. The book is addressed to the seeker in every reader.