SO IS THIS KIND OF LIGHT USED TODAY?

Amish lighting at night. Time for family conversation.

Yes it is and it is used in the Amish home where we dined.  There were no electric lights anywhere.

So many "English" including myself, complain about high utility bills. The Amish are totally off the grid and I applaud them.

First, I personally believe that we are over-charged for our utilities and that is because we are not allowed to have competition. Do you know how much utility lobbyists get paid? Start with $500,000 and go up. 

Second we need to have a choice of our providers. Currently, we do not have more than two providers who are in league with each other. Do we really need to run our televisions as we watch the umpteenth CSI or NCIS episode?  No.

So what do Amish do at night. Talk to each other. How novel. Read. Relax with their families. They believe that a reliance on electricity will be too tempting and will let evils into the home, television, radios, electronic devices -- things that detract from a God-centered life.  In other words, it would be too worldly.

And what do we do? Social Media. Watch television. Check our phones. Text and ping.  What do you think would happen if we lit our homes with gas/oil/candles.  Maybe we would be bored at first. Maybe we would learn how to do something. Maybe we would talk to each other.

When the power goes out, what do we do? Think about when it will come back on to power our Internet, lights, TV, games, fridge, stove.  We leave a huge carbon footprint.

Just for one day a week, try to not watch TV, the Internet, radio, talk on the phone .... how difficult is it to just BE. For us, impossible.