One Mans Wrath

note;for the sake of confidentuality the surname, for the main character in my little stories,is called Joe

part 1 [age 16] Poor Joe.He is in a very tough spot for a young man to be in.his father does not want to be amish and his mother escapes through alcohol.he is very confused and hurt at a critical point in his formative years due to his father leaving because he does not like the Amish lifestyle.it does not appear that his father even loves him.He realizes that his father is a monster and probably not the nicest person and as the first currents of a bitter,burning rage sweaps thru him he angrily vows that he will NOT be like his father.
  So when his father offers to buy him a brand new automobile to entice him to leave the Amish ,he tells him to bug off and turns him down.(being in the 1940s,this is a very impressive act for a young 16 year old kid to turn his back on a new car )
  He likes the Amish lifestyle but he joins the Amish church moreso to spite his father.he gets a quiet satisfaction from getting his revenge on his father by joining the church his father left.This is his first mistake.

part 2 [age 22]Joe is newly married to a nice quiet Amish girl.And as he stands there watching the birth of his first son he silently vows;"This son WILL grow up to be Amish like me.All that i have sacrificed to be Amish,then he better damn well be Amish to.He will grow up,marry,and give me many Amish grandchildren or else" This attitude is his second mistake.

part 3[age 30] He now has 8 children.His second to oldest son,who is 6,has accidentally broken a lantern while out helping do chores.he must be punished.so Joe grabs a strap and commences to beat his poor scared young son who has no idea what he did wrong or why his father is beating him with so much anger.visiting cousins watch in stunned horror as his son rolls across the floor crying and screaming in pain as Joe follows him,beating,beating ,beating......Joe does not realize he is doing anything wrong so you cannot really blame him.In his mind he is purifying his young son thru phsyical disciplent so that his son will NEVER grow up to be a monster like Joes father.This is not the first time it happens nor the last.Many minor offences are remedied by spanking his children as a smoldering righteous wrath sweeps thru him.In a twisted way he loves his children so much that he tries to physically beat the evil right out of them.This is his 3rd mistake.

part 4[age 45]Poor Joe.His wife died leaving him with 12 children.so he remarried a widow woman who has 4 children of her own.After all hes been thru hes becoming suspiciuos that God hates him.As much as hes tried to purify his children from evil,its not working.His oldest children have reached the age where he can no longer phsyically disciplne them.They respect him and fear him yes,but they are always getting into trouble and are running off and buying cars and drinking beer.Joe is very confused ,he does not understand why.And he is angry.After all hes been thru and all the sacrifices hes made to be Amish,these rotten little bastards arent listening.so he turns around and tries even harder on his younger children.there is nothing that a good spanking cant fix.

part 5[age 55]Poor Joe.the wheels are coming off the bus.besides one hiccup on his 3rd son,it had looked like his harsh disciplent had paid off.after going out into the world most of his children had returned and joined the Amish church due to his tough love[he thought].The more harsher truth is that most of his children joined the Amish church because they were scared of him yet and they wanted to get him off their ass.So they dont really understand the church they are joining or what it stands for but do it because they want to please their father and earn some acceptance in his eyes.and also to escape his physcological abuse.He is proud.IT WORKED.due to all his hard work his children have joined the Amish church.But there is trouble.
 Due to his children joining the Amish church for mostly the wrong reasons and not really understanding what their father ordered them to believe,they slowly but surely become disenchanted and start to leave one by one untill over the years,out of his 12 blood children,only 4 remain Amish.

present day [age 76]As the poor lonely,empty old man sits in his recliner scouring his Bible to reenforce his ideals and convictions so that he does not have to admit he did anything wrong,he is sad and confused.Most of his children live 100s of miles away and only come to see him on the holidays or for a few days at a time.he is very lonely because he does not have a close emotional relationship with any of his children.he can connect with them on talk of business and the weather but when it comes to actual emotions and words like "i love you" and "im sorry i screwed up" its just not there.he is sad because all that he worked so hard for is empty.most of his children and his grandchildren are not Amish.his legacy is shot.


i pity this old man.as he sits there sad and lonely in his last days,he could fix stuff.he could call all his children home and tell them"im sorry.i didnt treat you right when you were children.i screwed up.will you please forgive me?" the opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation is there.he could die a happy man surrounded by 16 children who forgave him and love him.but he cant.his pride would never allow him to acknowledge him to admit hes wrong.he has become the very monster that his father was.Poor Joe.


In hindsight his biggest mistake?he never understood the power of leading by example and inspiring his children to join the Amish church for the right reasons.he chose the path of wrath and force.

  Machets Gute