Growing Creed of Freedom

1620: The "Mayflower" Compact. (Written and signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower on their way to America.)
In the name of God, Amen. We shose names are written, the loyall subject of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith &c., haveing undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the northerne parts of Virginia, done by these presents solemnly and mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine ourselves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation of furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by the virtue hereof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, actes, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the general good of the Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the 11, of November, in the year of the raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James, of England, France & Ireland the 18, and Scotland the fiftie-fourth. Ano. Dom. 1620

The Mayflower

You have the wrong impression about the Mayflower crossing and Landing of the Pilgrims. And about Pilgrims and colonization in general. The Pilgrims did not come over seeking religious freedom. The core of the colonist was made up of “Scrooby Separatist” - a sect organized in 1606 at England’s Scrooby Manor to oppose residual ritual in post-Reformation church services. But they didn’t just sail to Plymouth and stake a claim. The New World, as far as Europe was concerned, was already “owned” by entrepreneurs called Merchant Adventurers, who speculated in colonies though tracing companies. These investors issued land grants to people like the Pilgrims and sponsored their emigration to America in return for goods shipped back to England. Roughly 70 Englishmen were organized to finance the Mayflower expedition. The Scrooby Separatists, meanwhile, had been living in Leyden, Holland, enjoying Dutch religious freedom but despairing of losing their British identity. The amount of confusion surrounding their departure on the Mayflower was, to understand it, unbelievable. Negotiation upon negotiation; nitpick upon nitpick; delay upon delay. The poor Pilgrims eventually had to sell off their butter from the ship’s stores to pay their fares. Two ships were slated to sail – the tiny Mayflower and the tinier Speedwell. But the Speedwell ail but sank before it cleared the English coast, and th Mayflower set out alone. Less than half the Mayflower passengers were Scrooby Separatists. The rest of the 101 voyagers were servants, others English separatists and tag alongs.
The Mayflower was about 90 feet long, 26 feet wide and weighed 108 tons. Most passengers slept in the ship’s 25-by-15-foot “grear cabin”, which afforded each Pilgrim accommodations slightly smaller than a frigidaire. The Pilgrims did, however, pack a lot of stuff – including furniture, clothes, smoked herring, dried ox tongue, oatmeal and brandy, beer, wine, salt cod, pickled eggs, Bibles, medical books, cannons, pigs, goats, chickens, one mastiff, and a spaniel. The crossing took 67 days. It was one grueling passage – analogous to taking the Green Line (refers to a Boston subway line) from Park Street to, say Munich. On the way, one crew member died (but nobody liked him anyway; he mocked the Puritans), and one passenger manservant, William Button, passed on. There was also one shipboard birth, a boy, named Oceanus Hopkins.
On November 10, 1620, the Pilgrims finally sighted land. To their dismay it was Cape Cod; they had been aiming for Manhattan. (There are actually conspiracy theories that ship’s pilot John Clark was bribed to take the Mayflower too far north and leave the Hudson for the Dutch.) The Mayflower ancored off P-town, and scouts took chilly day trips to find a suitable colony site. When the gang finally landed at Plymouth, they did not, as legend holds, fail to their kness and thank God for the lousy soil. Actualy, they kind of scruffled around and debated whether Plymouth was a good enough spot for settlement. Good enough, they decided in their exhaustion.
By spring, haif the Mayflower passengers were dead (including Oeanus). Of the surviving 54, 21 were under 16. No goods had been sent back to the colony’s inventors.

The execution

My Italian frend Mario and I are finalizing the opening of TINAHASIT VIRTUAL SHOP.
Mario is coming from Treviso to Millbrook to exercise his artistic power as well as his English. Excitement is running high so is the anticipation of the multiple items that will be displayed. Millbrook should be proud to have such an artist as Mario Malaguti coming in to honor the city. Welcome Mario the wiz.

Intrigue

At 67 I never witnessed such a marvelous drama of nature. A mama bird build her nest at the edge of one of my front porch columns. Next to the columns I have a beautiful white olive bush. A big spider built a web anchored to 4 limbs. A couple of bugs got caught into the web. The spider was approaching to suck their blood out. Mama bird flew out of the nest, hit the web and robbed the spider of it's pray. Poor spider hang on half of it's destroyed web that shone like silver in the sunshine. Mama bird ate the bugs, regurgitated them and fed her two little peepers.
Isn't nature wonderful to watch?
I love to seat on my rocking chair early in the morning with a hot cup of coffee and feel nature fill me with joy and delight

Pentagram

I sat next to two elderly ladies. Very well dressed, their polite motions indicated a superior class and education. I could not help admiring their posture and gestures. The main attraction for me became their conversation. They discussed the planet Venus and the Pentagram. They talked about a period, a period of 8 years and few days to complete the pentagram. It is all connected to Venus westwards connection with the sun. Every period, one said, is about 584 days long and each period determine a different point of the pentagram.
It is very rear to hear such deep conversations in public. Were the ladies astrologers? Is that why we only see the planet Venus next to the moon only every so many years? Has our civilization developed with the study of the sun, the moon and stars. Is the whole world based on numeric figures that only very few people can read? Are the prophecies numbers of the bible connected to the celestial movement of the stars. The two elderly ladies fascinated me and opened a Pandora box in my own brain which I did not even know existed. I feel like a child at the WHY stage of life. I am thirsty for answers to the connections that overheard conversation caused me to think about. I was proud of my choice of restaurant that day for just listening to others I realized that my brain is still hungry for knowledge. All it needs it's a little stimuli. I wonder: is the Eastern Star a pentagram and was the Pentagon based on the Pentagram. Is every new point a new agenda for a new leader? That would make a lot of sense counting historical events and duration of civilizations. This heavy reflecting gave a headache. I better go back to my simple life and concentrate on the opening of my upcoming TINAHASIT VIRTUAL SHOP. Could be my lucky star will enlighten me with great ideas.

The way to the future

Seems to me we are leaving the era of college education and slowly returning to good trades. Now that our economy is changing the throw away days will soon be gone. We will now go back to the past and save, repair, keep and remodel old merchandise.
Lucky are the people with a trading skill for if they keep honesty on their side they will be tomorrow's wealthy people. Knowledge in incomparable but so are skills. Gook skilled reliable people are very hard to find today. Good skill usually accompany good pride and dedication to one's own work.It is a beautiful feeling to be able to look back and say "I DID THAT". That is where the right pride comes in. Looking back at ones accomplishment makes a man a real man and a woman a real woman.
If the right pride will come back so will the right conscience, which seems to have left today's depersonalized young people.
Personality is only acquired through pride of one's own worth. To feel worthy of ourselves we need to accomplish and create. We need to look back and see our individuality. I am me, I am not like Jane or Mary. I don't wear blue jeans and t-shirts and tennis shoes. I wear skirts and high heels. I am ME. I will not follow the crowds to be part of some or to feel that I belong. I am part of myself and my God and that's what I believe life is all about. Individualism.

Pop goes the Weasel

I remember the song inspired by the spinning wheel. I wish I could remember how to use the spinning wheels I have at the house. I encountered a lady of 99 years and she told me her story. "I used to stay up all night using the table spinning wheel to make sure my daughters would have a trousseau at their marrying age. My breasts hurt so bad. Every time the spinning wheel hit them. But I wanted my daughter to have perfect cotton white sheets made from the Alabama cotton my husband used to pick in the fields. Poor man always had sore hands for the cotton flowers have a very hard shell. It was not easy to process it. It was a lot of hard work. We all worked together, we sang and whistled and watch out children play and fight in the fresh air. They were hard working days but they were very good days. We all helped each other. The lucky ones had mules and horses. We walked everywhere. Our family name was our pride and we always kept our heads high and a smile on our faces. We all hugged each other, our fun was going to church and have a dancing shindig every now and then. Hard work kept our minds clear and our bodies strong."
Her story kept going till I finally excused myself and went back to my modern life controlled by televisions, computers and different type media that seems to put us all in one direction.
Those must have been beautiful happy days. Wouldn't it be nice if they would come back again and people would mingle like in the past instead of ignoring each other.