Heresy

All is well with the world. I have my coffee close at hand and I’ve read some news. Even the news didn’t disturb me this morning. It was simply the usual. I’ll get worked up about it later after I’ve had some time to reflect on it.

I was reading some more of the book, Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Fascinating. The author pays attention to all of the details gleaned from his research and he really makes the characters (real people) come alive. Miles Standish, a red headed bully! Of course, Plymouth Rock is noted as a myth. As the boat from the Mayflower could not make it to shore because of the shallow waters near the beach, the passengers all had to get out and wade through the water to reach the shore. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for them to then climb up on a rock once they had reached their destination. And the passengers were not all pious Puritans. The slim majority of them were Puritans from Leiden in Holland, the others were known as Strangers. The Mayflower Compact was written so that these two groups might be able to work together for their survival. The Leidenites had a majority, but they had to concede some things because they knew they needed the Strangers to survive that first winter.

Strangers or Leidenites, they were certainly brave. And stupid. There wasn’t a fisherman among them and they almost starved and disappeared in a region where the seas were filled with fish. The best they could do was to dig for clams or catch lobster in the shallows. And shellfish were poisonous for a period of time each year; making them less than desirable.

And I was just reading where Roger Williams had gotten himself into trouble in the Plymouth colony with his 'stange opinions' that the Indians should be compensated for their land. He was sent back to Boston for his heresy. Oh, oh...more trouble is brewing!