Good Mornin’, Good Mornin’!
...in 1620, 130 of our ancestors got on a wooden boat and lived for nearly a month before they left the shores of their homeland to cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of a new life. They spent 66 days beginning in September before landing at Cape Cod in November. A wooden, freaking boat jammedpacked in 1620!
Wrap your head around that if you can.
The Mayflower landed and then had to decipher a new life in a new world and figure out what they could eat and what they couldn't. They lived on the boat another month – a boat that was only 80 feet long and 24 feet wide. Only 53 of them survived.
The boat was sent back to England. Imagine watching that fade off into the ocean sunset – your only means to get back “home” was now gone. The Pilgrims had to make it on their own. Today, across the world there are 35 million descendants with 10 million of those being in the USA.
Those initial descendants fought the Revolutionary War. Their descendants crossed the MS River and conquered the west. Their descendants fought two World Wars and later the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam trying to survive the elements and snipers and tanks and mosquitoes and every other hurdle and disaster that comes with war.
Today, their descendants are frantically searching stores for toilet paper and hand sanitizer and emptying grocery shelves like they are re-stocking the Mayflower but instead are worried about an extreme cold virus.
Our descendants survived by working together. Heck, they were outnumbered two to one at the first Thanksgiving in 1621 by the native Indians. But life continued. Even during the World War most activities continued. The ranks of professional sports were depleted by the draft and other players volunteering to join the Armed Forces. But it gave rise to Women’s Professional Baseball and such.
Let's not allow a virus to alter and disrupt our lives even though the media is pushing us all to walk the plank and live in mass hysteria. No, let's wash our hands, use the sanitizer and perhaps even share our toilet paper we've hoarded if necessary.
Our ancestors didn'tsurvive the Mayflower voyage and settling in America by being individuals. They had to work together, they had to maintain and overcome. We wouldn't be here today ambling about the grocery store looking for anything that kills germs if they hadn't pulled together.
At this time, the over reactions to possible lawsuits has depleted extracurricular activities and even a lot of necessary ones such as school and college. Let's take a deep breath, okay, put on your supersonic/ultra-filtrated breathing mask first and clear our heads and come together and be civil, be smart, be sensible and band together. Are we the new Mayflower on a voyage to defeat a complex cold germ? Perhaps.
So, as Nike used to say when they were a company to respect, lets "Just Do It!" Now is not the time to lock our doors and arenas and turn our backs on one another. Check on your friends and neighbors and wash your hands and take off your mask and smile at one another. We're going to get through this. We are going to survive. Our ancestors put the gene in us that took them across the wintry and stormy ocean.
Their faith in God and the desire to worship freely spurred them to begin their journey. Let's not put that faith on the backburner and fall in line with all of the doomsday predictions. Let's band together, pray, wash our hands and share the bounty of the toilet paper we've hoarded the past week.
Let’s honor the ingenuity and survival and living skills of our Mayflower ancestors. Relax, breathe and come together.
