Fall Encouragement

As we get into the Fall with thoughts of cool weather, warm gatherings and celebrations, my wife, Kim, encouraged me yesterday by telling me a story about the Pilgrims I never knew. After their 10-year failed experiment in Holland, they set off for the New World, and, as many know, had to become indentured to pay their way.

But just as they were about to set sail, the Pilgrim negotiating the terms didn't do such a good job, and they were changed in the investors' favor such that, after the servitude ended, the Pilgrims would no longer be able to keep their homes. Instead, they were to sell their homes and land and send half the proceeds back to the investors.

They didn't agree with that, but the ship was leaving, winter was coming, and many had already quit their jobs and sold their possessions, so there they were on a rocking boat trying to write a super-persuasive document in the hopes that a returning ship they might pass would be able to courier it back to the investors and change their minds. We think of last-minute business transactions by faith as a modern problem, but they are actually steeped in centuries of tradition.

(Image credit: Robert Walter Weir, Embarkation of the Pilgrims, 1857 painting, Brooklyn Museum,  https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Robert_Walter_Weir_-_Embarkation_of_the_Pilgrims_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)