Hanging On

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

At this time of year, I usually mention my ancestors who came to this continent aboard the Mayflower. Of the seven who made the crossing, only two survived that first year: John Howland, a young bond servant to John Carver, suspected author and signer of the Mayflower Compact, and another, Elizabeth Tilley, child of Pilgrim parents, who eventually married. The boomerang effect of stripping whitewash off our mythologies, including the origin story of those first years in Plymouth, has offered us a more realistic look at the humanity that built this nation, and that is one of the blessings I’m counting this holiday season. As one of the 30 million descendants of that first motley crew of 102 immigrants, I find all this business of saintliness and unblemished virtue tedious.

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I should mention an earlier adventurer, the lately maligned — and deservedly so — Christopher Columbus who “sailed the ocean blue” in 1492. We mostly ignore what happened during those years between mention of Spain’s entry and the perilous passage of the Mayflower in 1620. Since Columbus never got this far north, recorded history is sketchy, but stories of deprivation so severe at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia that inhabitants resorted to cannibalism have recently been confirmed forensically. No wonder, then, that the group who landed in Plymouth was reduced in number by half within the first few bitterly cold winter months.

Grampa John (times 13 generations, in my case) had a singular accomplishment prior to landing in Massachusetts: he was swept off the ship in a raging storm and grabbing hold of the topsail halyard, held on until he was eventually hauled back in. As a religious Separatist (Puritan), John no doubt considered his rescue providential. As bondsman to the first governor of the colony (who also served as representative of the British merchants who funded the expedition), his retrieval was also considered the successful securing of an asset. We have been about this game of profitable conquest — the birth of American exceptionalism and a hint of the fledgling doctrine of Manifest Destiny — since the very beginning.

As things are rarely as simplistic as historical events (that might prove useful to politics) are depicted, we are finally taking a realistic look at the socioeconomic complexity of our national heritage. The recent National Geographic two-part mini-series, Saints And Strangers, came closer to an accurate accounting of this event than we’re used to, although, as entertainment, liberties were necessarily taken with the dialogue, time line shortcuts were imposed, and facts important to indigenous Americans overlooked.

The tale is narrated, for instance, by William Bradford as leader of the colony, although he did not become governor until the second year at Plymouth. History tells us that Governor Carver — who presided at the first Thanksgiving but never saw the second — was soundly criticized posthumously by his financiers, for having spent too much time in those first critical weeks organizing the struggling colony and not enough securing profitable resources. Evidently, in service to the movie version of events, at any rate, he who fails to prosper can be consigned to history’s trash heap.

To its credit, this National Geographic offering attempts to grapple with the ethics of, for example, pilfering stores of corn buried by the locals, and explores the moderate voices of both colonists and Native American leaders, as well as those quick to judgment. Since everyone has a perspective dear to them, you will not be shocked to learn that we can find disparity in the reviews of Saints And Strangers.

Mainstream media like the Washington Post seemed to welcome the attempt at a more accurate accounting, while over at über-conservative Breitbart, the reviewer found the mini-series unimpressive, although it gave points for not succumbing to the “politically correct, anti-Western European hate-fest we’ve come to expect from Hollywood.”

Most conservative and several mainstream reviewers found the offering “boring,” which tells me more about them and their expectations of life as simplistic drama than about the facts at Plymouth colony. We seem to have an unstated need for some Kumbaya moment to take the edge off the harsher face of our aggressions — something more soothing, like one of one of those little construction paper Pilgrim hats we made in Kindergarten, celebrating the discovery of maize with our new Red Indian friends [sic.]

On the opposite side of the argument, the Wampanoag, who had been contracted to verify the accuracy of the script and dismissed when they demanded approval, find the mini-series denigrating and culturally inaccurate, and this, of course, in defiance of National Geographic’s reputation for historical accuracy. Frankly, it’s understandable if this topic is as sensitive as a wild hare among those who have seldom seen their history sympathetically portrayed, let alone truthfully told. And while I can be empathetic to their outrage, it seldom helps to settle a controversy. I appreciated a measured and not entirely negative review by a Mohawk man in Indian Country, titled “Close Enough is Great.” Gotta start somewhere telling a story not so warm and cozy, right ?

I’ve not yet been able to see Saints and Strangers, but I look forward to it. The cast includes characterizations of both my ancestors, which will be interesting to watch. There is, however, the bigger questions we don’t address when we discuss this topic — things like American hegemony, our continued empiricism, and the necessity of ‘American leadership’ that almost always extends our footprint of influence without improving the circumstances of those we seek to protect.

Was the Plymouth landing the first step in an intentional genocide of the indigenous population or  was that just another of those unintended consequences we’re so good at? And after all these generations, all this time relating to our neighbors, should’t we have questions about who and what the “savages” really are? At least, in this starker version of the Thanksgiving story, we can chew over the moral and ethical implications of taking what is not ours simply because we can.

There are some valuable takeaways, important in the scheme of things: gratitude for our ability as a species to overcome great odds and thrive in spite of them. There is encouragement in this story, in that we were able to find commonality with one another, even though those early agreements did not hold for long, along with admonition that we must continue to respect our varied cultural differences while caring for our mutual survival. There is comfort in knowing we’ve overcome so many of those early deprivations and influences that killed us so easily, that we’ve created a less difficult — if not dangerous — world to navigate.

The simplest bit of wisdom we can glean from this story can be imagined easily enough in my mind’s eye, me face to face with Grampa John, asking what he might consider the most important thing to remember on this epic journey. Not hard to conjure him telling me — telling all of us — that when the storm breaks all around, hold tight to the rope!

8 thoughts on “Hanging On”

  1. Barbara Koehler

    No doubt Grandpa John would be proud of you Jude, and grateful that his survival counted for not just continued lineage, but continued improvement in the human species. I look forward as well to seeing the portrayal of your early kinfolk. The savage side of humanity has been in competition with its loftier, spiritual side for goddess knows how long. It has taken us forever (or close to it) to sublimate our survival instinct, learn to trust (even a little) and feel en masse the healing power of love. Yet there are many who report the feeling of change in the air, a level of understanding being reached planet-wide; consciousness through communication.

    Yet even if that is so, there is (at least) one last furious volley of fear-of-the-unknown to contend with. We in the U.S. see it unmasked in all its glory as the presidential elections process, those in Europe see it as ISIS attacks and threats. Hoping to see hope in the December Solstice chart, a tool for spotting trends and objectives for humanity over a 3 month period, I may have found some.

    What I found first of all was a pattern called the Locomotive, due to its lopsided placement of planets through 2/3’ds of the chart. It got its name because back when train engines used steam for power they had a lopsided gait. This meant that weight had to be added to the “lighter side of the train engine to keep it from rocking, a problem that caused the train wheels and the tracks to wear out faster. A locomotive pattern in a chart will “add weight” (emphasis) to its empty trine area, a kind of obsessive effort to balance the life of the chart “owner”. The Solstice chart has an empty trine between Moon in Taurus and Jupiter in Virgo (empty Gemini, Cancer, Leo), and Jupiter is considered the lead (engine) planet in the Locomotive pattern.

    Jupiter will spend a lot of time conjunct the U.S. Neptune at 22+ Virgo and in the Winter Solstice chart, Jupiter is in a grand earth trine with Moon in Taurus and Mercury-conjunct-Pallas in Capricorn, who are only 4 degrees from Pluto in Capricorn (who is square the U.S. Saturn [government] in Libra). Pluto in any chart is a good place to start looking for the savage side of humanity.

    There are so many planets in that Solstice that “talk” to each other (similar degree placements) beyond the triple trine that I felt it to be a signal for a level of cooperation greater than usual. For example, Venus in Scorpio is sextile Jupiter and sextile Mercury-Pallas and opposite the Moon. That in itself is called a Kite pattern and puts emphasis (spotlight) on the Moon, symbolizing the Public. That Moon at 17+ Taurus is only 2 degrees away from the U.S. Sibly Vesta who symbolizes investment as well as tireless devotion.

    The U.S. Vesta is in a grand trine herself (although it is wide) in the U.S. Sibly birth chart, along with Neptune in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn. With transiting Jupiter conjunct the U.S. Neptune and the transiting North Node (in January), and trans. Jupiter being the engine planet in the Winter Solstice Locomotive chart pattern, the Solstice will be activating the natal trine between U.S. Neptune and Pluto as well as the trine between U.S. Neptune and Vesta. The U.S. (chart) will receive the Locomotive obsessive efforts to balance or compensate its (Winter Solstice) empty trine and in the U.S. chart that empty trine would fall primarily in the 6th (service), 7th (relationship), and 8th (shared resources) houses. This Solstice chart is effective from December 21 through March 20, 2016.

    Bottom line, the U.S. will benefit from increased (Jupiter) natal Neptune (collective in nature) influence to (1) regurgitate natal Pluto’s fear and (2) support natal Vesta’s unrelenting devotion and investment in this country. The quindecile aspect between transiting Jupiter and transiting Neptune continues through into the Winter Solstice, another source of obsessive (driven) energy, and more Neptune. Think of a hot, hot sauna that you have been in for way too long (it seems to you) and you will grasp the idea here. It’s what we signed up for, right? A good cause. The Force, it appears, is with us in this. Blessings.
    be

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  2. aWord

    Yet another layer peeled off the proverbial onion, yes Jude?
    Thanks for your Thanks Giving gift, and thanks to your Grampa John for holding on; had he not, we would not be giving thanks today for You.

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  3. aWord

    Once again we’re on the same reading schedule, Be. Thanks for your additional update re the planets who oversee us here on this little island. I am still not certain that Pluto is my friend, but being part of the Force well, enlightenment too can come from intended-or expected- places.

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