I cant seem to turn off the news.....
For a week now the economic gyrations in Washington and Wall Street and the political speeches this financial crisis "inspires" give pause to anyone at the brink of retirement or in the least dependent on their investments for present security.
I am grateful SOMEONE finally pushed the button and said "ENOUGH" and called a halt to short selling and made both sides sit down and envision a terrifying reality without immediate intervention.
So sad it had to come to this.
And so distressing that, because of an economic environment set up to encourage greed, every one of us will be effected for many many years. It has shaken me deeply, as it has so many others.
Naturally, in frightening, sleepless, times like these, we look wherever we can for comfort and successful precedent to give us hope. They say this is an historic moment. We ask ourselves, how did our ancestors survive their trials generation after generation for the thousands of years it took to make us who we are today?
We are a nation of immigrants.. some newer than others, but risk is not foreign to us or our kin. My own thoughts turn (as they do so often when the road seems tough) to the utterly dedicated and remarkably brave men and women, the first Pilgrims, who risked EVERYTHING they were and owned to blaze a trail of reason in this New World. They had no lifeboats - if their ship went down where in that endless sea could they row? They had no radar - even their available navigation coordinates didn't keep them from landing far north of their original destination. These men and women and children faced isolation and the unknown and risk I cannot begin to imagine with courage based only on faith that their belief in God was strong and they would be sustained.
Recalling the many stories of immigration and of our earliest settlers, suddenly what we are facing today seems actually not quite so grave.
Above I have posted a picture of My family's transport to the new world painted by the English oceanographer, Mike Haywood. John Howland was a very young, unmarried, man when he stepped aboard that leaky, reeking, wine-transport vessel with 135 others and set sail across the Atlantic. Governor Bradford tells that tale of my 9th Great Grandfather in his famous chronicle. It was John Howland who fell overboard during one of the many violent storms. And it was unquestionably a miracle that his hand somehow found the topsail halyard floating loose several FATHOMS under the icy water and that he could be pulled back aboard by others who had seen him go under. No, it isn't that we will face storms or accident during our lives. That is the human condition on this earth. It's how we are sustained through them that matters.
The brave Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers had so much faith in the Highest Power in the Universe that they never doubted their mission. A main beam of their tiny ship buckled in a brutal storm in the middle of the ocean. By chance a heavy screw was in the hold and they frantically used it to shore up the ship before the hull collapsed around them. Even when HALF of them (six of my many-great grandparents among them) died of exposure and starvation the first winter, although the captain offered passage back to anyone who wished to leave when the Mayflower set sail to return to England in the Spring not ONE single soul but her crew went with her.
I'll take that as an example worthy of following.
For one thing, John Howland was not married and had no children when he fell into the sea. If he had not been miraculously saved, I would not be writing this. If the mother, who died the first winter as did so many of the other mothers, of passenger five year old Mary Allerton, had not sacrificed her own food to assure her daughter's survival, I wouldn't be writing this: young Mary also grew up to marry and become my many-great grandmother. No, eyewitness chronicles and history attest that the beginning of America was a terrible time for those taking the risk. But nobody I've heard questions that it took miracles and willing sacrifice and civil cooperation to assure the survival of that brave group of believers - the signers of the Mayflower Compact, the first written document spelling out our uniquely Democratic future. And, unquestionably, the courage to depart familiar shores and expose themselves to the wrath of the open ocean and the unfamiliar threats ashore came directly from their deep abiding belief that, whatever befell them on the journey, God was holding them in His loving hands.
I try to keep their faith. It helps me sleep.
We all come from amazing stories of risk and achievement over endless generations. Sad that so few were documented...except for the fact we are here to prove their success. I wish us all the courage and determination of our various ancestors ...... and the comfort and security of their belief that all will turn out well.
This sounds like a sermon.
I'm done.
For a week now the economic gyrations in Washington and Wall Street and the political speeches this financial crisis "inspires" give pause to anyone at the brink of retirement or in the least dependent on their investments for present security.
I am grateful SOMEONE finally pushed the button and said "ENOUGH" and called a halt to short selling and made both sides sit down and envision a terrifying reality without immediate intervention.
So sad it had to come to this.
And so distressing that, because of an economic environment set up to encourage greed, every one of us will be effected for many many years. It has shaken me deeply, as it has so many others.
Naturally, in frightening, sleepless, times like these, we look wherever we can for comfort and successful precedent to give us hope. They say this is an historic moment. We ask ourselves, how did our ancestors survive their trials generation after generation for the thousands of years it took to make us who we are today?
We are a nation of immigrants.. some newer than others, but risk is not foreign to us or our kin. My own thoughts turn (as they do so often when the road seems tough) to the utterly dedicated and remarkably brave men and women, the first Pilgrims, who risked EVERYTHING they were and owned to blaze a trail of reason in this New World. They had no lifeboats - if their ship went down where in that endless sea could they row? They had no radar - even their available navigation coordinates didn't keep them from landing far north of their original destination. These men and women and children faced isolation and the unknown and risk I cannot begin to imagine with courage based only on faith that their belief in God was strong and they would be sustained.
Recalling the many stories of immigration and of our earliest settlers, suddenly what we are facing today seems actually not quite so grave.
Above I have posted a picture of My family's transport to the new world painted by the English oceanographer, Mike Haywood. John Howland was a very young, unmarried, man when he stepped aboard that leaky, reeking, wine-transport vessel with 135 others and set sail across the Atlantic. Governor Bradford tells that tale of my 9th Great Grandfather in his famous chronicle. It was John Howland who fell overboard during one of the many violent storms. And it was unquestionably a miracle that his hand somehow found the topsail halyard floating loose several FATHOMS under the icy water and that he could be pulled back aboard by others who had seen him go under. No, it isn't that we will face storms or accident during our lives. That is the human condition on this earth. It's how we are sustained through them that matters.
The brave Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers had so much faith in the Highest Power in the Universe that they never doubted their mission. A main beam of their tiny ship buckled in a brutal storm in the middle of the ocean. By chance a heavy screw was in the hold and they frantically used it to shore up the ship before the hull collapsed around them. Even when HALF of them (six of my many-great grandparents among them) died of exposure and starvation the first winter, although the captain offered passage back to anyone who wished to leave when the Mayflower set sail to return to England in the Spring not ONE single soul but her crew went with her.
I'll take that as an example worthy of following.
For one thing, John Howland was not married and had no children when he fell into the sea. If he had not been miraculously saved, I would not be writing this. If the mother, who died the first winter as did so many of the other mothers, of passenger five year old Mary Allerton, had not sacrificed her own food to assure her daughter's survival, I wouldn't be writing this: young Mary also grew up to marry and become my many-great grandmother. No, eyewitness chronicles and history attest that the beginning of America was a terrible time for those taking the risk. But nobody I've heard questions that it took miracles and willing sacrifice and civil cooperation to assure the survival of that brave group of believers - the signers of the Mayflower Compact, the first written document spelling out our uniquely Democratic future. And, unquestionably, the courage to depart familiar shores and expose themselves to the wrath of the open ocean and the unfamiliar threats ashore came directly from their deep abiding belief that, whatever befell them on the journey, God was holding them in His loving hands.
I try to keep their faith. It helps me sleep.
We all come from amazing stories of risk and achievement over endless generations. Sad that so few were documented...except for the fact we are here to prove their success. I wish us all the courage and determination of our various ancestors ...... and the comfort and security of their belief that all will turn out well.
This sounds like a sermon.
I'm done.
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