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a good life INTERRUPTED, by Sam Girod (A true story)

It took courage for Sam to write about his travesty of being convicted of drug trafficking. He is after all one of the plain folks, Amish. He didn’t write his story to gain fame or fortune, he admits to violating the rules of the FDA. Knowing many Amish gives me an extra insight into the culture clash between his and the modern world. He sincerely saw no wrong in what he did—the Amish have a unique slant on life. When I read this work, I found several grammatic errors, but overlooked them and concentrated on the meat of the message. While Sam did break the rules, his punishment appears unjustified in my mind.

Please read Sam’s account of his journey, and I don’t want to spoil it by giving away too much in this post. Ignorance of the law is no excuse and there is a certain level of naivety at work in this case, even in his writing. On the one hand Sam shows he had a good sense of business, which seems to be one of the gifts of the Amish. They work hard, are truthful, honest, and yet are no different in their basic make up from anyone else. Spiritual struggles affect us all and Sam tells us about his. The gist of it stems from Sam making an old family recipe from chickweed and beeswax, a skin ointment used for generations to heal skin irritations. Sam’s troubles multiply as his ointment becomes famous and customers tell him it cures their skin cancer—claims Sam adds to the printed labels on the ointment containers and to flyers he distributes. His success is his downfall. This father, loving husband, and grandfather soon finds himself in deep trouble with the law.

Sam tells of his trial, his distrust of attorneys, his belief that the truth will prevail in the justice system. He reflects on the mistakes of not taking the advice he was offered because it went against his general principles. Having courage isn’t a matter of being innocent or guilty, it means to be willing to stand your ground and face the consequences. Sam does just such a thing and his penalties are heavy, in my view excessive.

The story continues as Sam endures prison life and suffers further from the inability of visits from his family and friends. In order to visit a prisoner, photo ID is required. The Amish forbid photographs of themselves, which they see as graven images. When you look at our culture, with Facebook and all the selfies, you must wonder if we aren’t caught up in self-worship, but this is another matter.

a good life INTERRUPTED is about cultural clash, truth, honesty, and justice. My suggestion is to read this work and judge for yourself. If nothing else, his story will entertain you and may inspire some thoughts about where our culture, and the Amish culture, get things right and wrong.