So you think you're a homesteader? Lessons from the MAYFLOWER..... we left our colonist friends not celebrating Christmas but burying their dead & building a 20 x 20 building to shelter themselves & their supplies. The weather is cold, windy & rainy in Plimouth harbor and the colonists and crew are very ill. Now is when we see a simple & grim phrase enter the record, "Those that were able". This sums up the situation succinctly- Those that were able went ashore to fell trees. Those that were able hewed timbers. Those that were able sawed lumber. Those that were able to get up, to work, to not give up in despair. Those that were able build platforms to mount cannons for defense from the Spanish as well as the Natives. Degory Priest died Aboard ship & those that were able took him ashore for burial. The colonist's treasurer Master Martin ( the man who annoyed the shipwrights working on SPEEDWELL ) dies & those that were able bury him as well. This is a dark times for our friends, but I think there is an important lesson here. Too often we don't look at ourselves and the things we do from the perspective of "Those that are able". In America today we are pretty damn exceptional. We use the internet for information and entertainment but don't need to Google "How to start a fire". We build our shelters, grow our food and stay at home because we can, because we choose too. Right now thousands, maybe millions of weak, dependent people are in a panic because there no more bread in aisle 12. Take a moment anytime you are doing for yourself and puff your chest out, be proud of yourself. You are able & most of this country is not. Family talk trash about your lifestyle? Ask them a few questions, how able are they if the job dries up, if the power goes out or the stores run out of food. Be proud of yourself because YOU ARE ABLE !
By Unicoi Ludd
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