They Knew They Were Pilgrims

What a wonderful first pilgrimage this has been for our family. After putting about 1200 miles on Marmie and Dean-Dean's van, we got our first glimpse of Plymouth Harbor. Not in exactly the same location as the pilgrims of 1620... but close. And though that now-famous rock is probably a myth (there's no actual, historical evidence "Plymouth Rock" played any part in the pilgrim's landing), like all good myths, it's worth its truth.

So we've seen the rock... and what a solid place to begin our travels -- with that group of families, who set out to secure the freedom to worship, as they chose. (They were not unlike our Roger Williams (see my last post) -- they were Puritans, and Separatists... but not Baptists.) That group who had no particular expertise in travel, or pioneering, or self-defense... these were "butchers, bakers, and candle-stick-makers," who simply wanted the right to worship, where they chose, when they chose, as they chose.) So, the Deans have traveled... enjoying the freedom they found for us, and in our own way, looking for God.

And without the help of a few friends along the way, there is little doubt that their venture would not have been successful. And these friends were a surprising lot... a handful of Adventurers, traveling with them on the Mayflower, whose intent was not religious freedom but financial gain, and a few Native Americans, like the great sachem (chief/leader), Massassoit. The two documents produced by the pilgrims upon arriving in this new land are significant -- perhaps even forerunners for a later Declaration of Independence, and a Constitution, that would make manifest in the world an entirely new experience of living (inter-independent and respectfully free). The Mayflower Compact was an agreement between the pilgrims and their Adventurer-companions, that they would live and work together toward a common end, and the written agreement between Massassoit and the pilgrims, expressing a similar hope for harmony, have stood the test of time, as the continuing experiment in American-style democracy attests.

So their commitment and conviction and example of industry and harmony have been the cornerstone of this nation's success, and serve as an appropriate stepping stone for our family's journeys together.

As the pilgrim leader William Bradford said, of the rag-tag band who intrepidly sailed across that wild North Atlantic so long ago, "They knew they were pilgrims."

And so do we.