Meet the Amish - TV series

I've watched a couple of episodes on SBS, and it's a fascinating contrast between old and new ways. You can see what has been gained but, more so, what has been lost. Watch the whole series on YouTube here. Here is a preview.

The Amish are fit and healthy, more civilised and community minded, but they do admit to disliking the men's beards, and are hesitant to trust their feelings.

This engrossing reality series follows a group of teens who are experiencing Rumspringa, a period when Amish teenagers are allowed to explore life outside of their closed society.

Will they be tempted to turn their backs on their old lives and embrace the new freedoms on offer?

Leaving home -- a place with its own language and rules, where there are no cars or electricity, where no one drinks or smokes and where living simply means becoming closer to God -- the young adults travel to Britain for the first time. Through Amish eyes, audiences get to know the ways and whims of British "tribes" like rural indie rock bands; aristocratic, castle-owning, polo-playing Scottish teenagers; urban street dance kids in London; and independent liberals in a Cornwall surfing community.

File under: yin and yang.