Nightwatch: An Inquiry Into Solitude: Alone On The Prairie With The Hutterites

by Robert E. Rhodes

          What would compel a daily newspaper journalist, raised in an affluent family in the South, to abandon his career and embark on a spiritual odyssey that would take him, his wife, and young daughter to live among the Plain people of the prairies, the Hutterian Brethren? From 1995 to 2002, the author and his family gave up all claims to personal property, moved to Starland Colony in Minnesota, and joined the often contradictory Old World existence of the Hutterites, whose isolated farming communes stretch across the American Great Plains and the prairie provinces of Canada.           In Nightwatch, the author explores the modern-day expression of Hutterianism, born amid the flames and persecution of the Reformation and transplanted in the 1870s from Russia to the western United States. This is a story not only of spiritual questioning, but an inquiry into what it is to be "strangers among strangers," looking at the inner callings that bring people together, and in some cases drive them apart.           "Several months after we had moved to Starland, a period during which we had passed a long and dormant winter, seldom traveling because of the deep and smothering snow, I made a trip into the Twin Cities, about 80 miles away. Having lived so far from the rest of society, even for a few months, I felt a distinct anxiety when I found myself in downtown Minneapolis that first time, navigating the crowds and passing among buildings much taller than our colony's feed mill leg, which was the tallest object in all of Sibley County. An encounter with the homeless in Minneapolis, or the sight of a man and woman begging for money beneath an overpass while their small fire smoldered and snow drifted around them, filled me with despair and dread. Returning to our place that night, down the snow-streaked county roads, past gray dairies and mailboxes with Norwegian names, I sat in the minister's living room. I told him I was glad I had such a place to come home to, that we didn't have to live like the people in the big evil cities. David Vetter looked at me a moment and said something I did not "Spoken like a true Pharisee," he said. "You've only been here a few short months, and already you're getting to be just like us."

202 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author seems to write more about the cultural and historical aspects of the Hutterites, and barely touches on his actual experience living there. There are already many books out there on the history and such, this would have been much better if he focused more on his own story, as the title and description suggests.

[Dnicebear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solitude, spaciousness, living on the prairie, communally as Anabaptists--these are threads of my own life. Now here Mr Rhodes shares in language, spare and meaningful as a prairie community, and crafted as a journalist can, the joys and challenges of living Hutterite life in Minnesota. Each chapter, each word invites the reader into the rhythms of life of the Rhodes couple moving into the Hutterite community, beginning in December 1995, and attempting to not own anything. "Our tax returns, because every man, woman, and child received an equal share of the corporate income, on paper, at least, would seem ridiculous to anyone else. Our 'income' of only a few thousand dollars each would not provide the most fundamental needs of survival, if that were what we really lived on." Mr. Rhodes becomes a welder in the community shop and also shares in the night watch duties. The deliciousness of the life and the bond of obedience to the community also mean Mr and Ms Rhodes cannot stay forever and six years later they go back to Kansas.

"Life among the Hutterites ...was not guided as much by authority figures or strict rules but by a much more spontaneous kind of consensus. ...differences, seeming small at first glance, evoked deep and often harsh dissent...this was where we found our greatest frustration. Our decision to leave, however, had less to do with these conflicts than it did with concerns for our children and their future. Because we have two daughters, both us were concerned that their futures not be unfairly determined by the limits of the Hutterian lifestyle, which in the case of women could be perceived as quite repressive." (p. 180,181)

I drink deeply from Mr. Rhodes reflection on what really stood out most in his journey into Hutterite community: "...it was the fields--the land itself, not some sense of ownership--that stood out most." (p. 193) "To our minds, we had attached ourselves not only to a church and a community but to God. And for me, God was most obviously present in the visible creation around us. I needed it--the smell and sight of it, the bitter slash of the wind opening and revealing every sense within me--and I feared I couldn't leave it behind for long. The sad part was that no one--not one of our fellow communards--saw the same kind of blessing in our life together. Or if they did, they couldn't find the words to describe such a vulnerable state. They had become so used to this way of life that its uniqueness, its grace, no longer seemed to exist for them. ...I enjoyed the dust and rattle of the cornstalks and the cool October breezes and the blue-black skies of late afternoon and evening when we went out harvesting. I think of this time now as if it were a lifetime ago, and I nearly weep. I always considered farming to be a great blessing, a vocation of undeserved holiness." (P. 193-195)

Thank you Mr. Rhodes for exploring 'the hazards,' ghettos and blessings of isolated life.

[Mary]

This fellow took his wife and young family and lived among the Hutterites in Minnesota for aseveral years. They are rural, peasant like Anabaptists like the Amish, but with less attractive clothes on the women! I am enjoying it because of it's theological content, cultural content, and because it happens not far from where my son lives in Minnesota. The chapter on the hermit in the Ethiopian desert is the best of all!

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful writing says so much better than I could about how it feels to have one's heart in two places, how one can long for community and deep relationships, how it feels to connect to a place and to agriculture and the longing to follow Christ completely in life. The language is so evocative. I will have to read this book again to absorb its beauty and sorrow.