To Orwell Today Readers,

Today I'm giving thanks for a friend who gives smiles to all on her list with friendly missives from Mexico where she is permanently residing. Today she sent a poem:

Growing up in America -- Canada in the north and the United States in the south -- that poem truly describes our traditional Thanksgiving feasts and cornucopia.

Here's an article in today's news which helps us remember what Thanksgiving is REALLY about -- not the low level to which it's stooped these days, ie BLACK FRIDAY -- "biggest shopping day of the year".

As Americans gather for Thanksgiving, they celebrate the legacy of the Pilgrims' success. Lost in the holiday's mythology are the travails endured by passengers on the Mayflower -- a tiny, rickety ship never meant for passengers or an ocean crossing -- and the inspiration of their perseverance... The Mayflower was 100 feet long and 25 feet at her widest. The best ship the Pilgrims could afford, the Mayflower was built to haul lumber, fish, and wine. Its bulky design made it difficult to sail against the strong, angry crosswinds of the North Atlantic, which is why the voyage from England to America took over two months. The Mayflower had to turn back twice because its sister ship, the optimistically named Speedwell, kept springing leaks. When the Mayflower decided to go alone in the autumn of 1620, its passengers faced not just frigid weather, but the constant threat of pirates.

There were no bathrooms on the Mayflower. Passengers traveled in the dank, suffocating, windowless "gun deck" with a ceiling about five-feet high. They slept on top of each other, rigging makeshift dividers for a minimum of privacy. Much of the gun deck was taken up by masts, storage, and a shallop. The 102 passengers -- 41 Pilgrims fleeing persecution by the Church of England and 61 non-separatists called Strangers -- shared less than 14 square feet per person, ten less than a burial plot. The second governor of the Plymouth Colony, William Bradford, wrote that everyone's clothes were damp and dirty all the time. While the crew sometimes let passengers out for air and sunlight, the slippery deck was, given the sudden waves, risky even for seasoned sailors.

Fresh food ran out fast; the passengers subsisted on preserved meats and fish -- salted, pickled, dried -- and biscuits. Because fresh water spoiled, too, they drank beer. It tasted more like malt liquor than the variety of brews we'll enjoy while cheering the NFL's Thanksgiving games. By the end of the 3,000-mile journey, even these unappetizing supplies were running low. Due to a lack of Vitamin C, everyone developed scurvy. This resulted in joint and muscle pain, bleeding gums, loose teeth, skin lesions, anemia, and poor healing of wounds. Children from a few months old to 15 wailed, pigs and other livestock stank. When a storm hit mid-voyage, mothers embraced children and fathers enveloped both. If the Mayflower broke apart, they'd go to their watery graves together...

Bradford recorded the Pilgrims' joy upon at last catching sight of Cape Cod. "They fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean". Before disembarking, the Pilgrims created the Mayflower Compact. A historian, George Bancroft, called it "the birth of constitutional liberty", writing that "in the cabin of the Mayflower, humanity recovered its rights and instituted government on the basis of 'equal laws' for the general good"... Today, it's hard to imagine the hardships endured to cross the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate the Pilgrims' grit -- a legacy ensuring that whatever the seas we sail, our life journeys are a lot smoother because of their sacrifice.

The Pilgrims are the reason for the season, and it's good to be reminded of that and brought down to earth. Look where we are now -- and weep -- these 404 years since the beginning of American Thanksgiving.

All the best,
Jackie Jura, November 2024

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