Rock, meets the rock

 

spoiler alert, not the real ship

So work was quiet this afternoon/evening and I decide to drive over to Plymouth to catch the historical sites. In my mind I've always pictured Plymouth Rock to be this mighty bulwark jutting out from the water and providing a safe and strong place for the Pilgrims to establish a home for themselves, their families, future generations, and eventually a new nation. Such was my "vision" of these events. 

My how ships have change

As I pulled up to the harbor, I strained to see this great monument to our history. Hmmm, it must be just out of view, so I park the car and get out to commence my own search for our new beginnings. As the harbor becomes fully into view, I still can't see that rock. Ah, I see a tourist sign that says its just ahead up around a bend. The anticipation builds, my spirit quickens at the realization I'm about to come face to face with the very spot that began it all. I round the bend, and surprisingly there is no dramatic rock in my view. 

Yeah, we all said the same thing

Strangely there is a crowd around a Roman style enclosure with grand columns. As I get closer to this peculiar site, I pass a sign that says "Plymouth Rock" (which by the way has a hearse parked next to it....um, not sure).

Quizzically I approach the Roman monument and look in. There sitting in a hole is a plain ole rock with 1620 chiseled into it. Now is it just me? or did most of you expect that Plymouth Rock was some great outcropping that welcomed the Pilgrims and gave them a memorial spot to take their first steps? I'm staring at this stupid rock sitting in a hole and the romance of this whole historical story is just fading out with the retreating tide.

  Dejected, I turned and made my way back out of the park. Passing the Plymouth Rock sign still wondering why a hearse is sitting there with the door open. Perhaps it's to revive disappointed tourists.  

And why is there a hearse?

 Apparently the story of Plymouth Rock actually goes that the Pilgrims didn't land ON it, rather they anchored by it and stepped on it from their boat.  In fact, the pilgrims didn't even identify it as an important spot at the time. It was 100 years later when someone decided that this overgrown pebble should be memorialized for all time and made a big deal of pulling the rock onto the beach and taking steps to protect it.



Yup, this is it.

So my American History books deceived me just a bit, and I am left tonight to deal with the fact that sometimes our imagination can create a vision far grander than reality.

In the end, this story was not about a rock, but rather about a group of people who set out to be free & live their lives without oppression and onerous government burdens placed upon them.  I wondered what they would think if they could see what has become of their hopes and dreams?  I'm guessing they would be amazed by much, and yet simultaneously perplexed by the burdens we once again carry.  I know there was another civilization on this land before the Pilgrims, and perhaps other civilizations before them.  Annals record that there were events in our nations history that were not our proudest moments.  Nevertheless as a people we have seen this nation bring admirable good to many, righted terrible wrongs, and healed many wounds.  We could have done more, but sometimes our "vision" of what we could/should have done takes on a grander view than what actual good we really have done.  So for a few minutes I was deflated about this Plymouth Rock memorial really just turning out to be a mere stepping stone.  But as I thought about it, there certainly is a grander view that took place as each person departed that ship and stepped onto that rock. 



Here is the real story!

The real view was not what I had;  facing east toward the harbor and looking at the rock, but rather when I turned around to the west to leave and saw a vast landscape spread out in front of me.  This was the view the Pilgrims had before them.  The vision of a new life, new freedoms, new opportunities, and the generations who's lives would be forever altered from the moment those adventurers feet touched that stone.   



Not sure why everyone is dancing?

My vision is too often short sighted and limited by fears & pessimism.  Thank you William Bradford for helping me to turn around from my limited vantage point to see the imaginings of what would unfold out ahead for you and your fellow voyagers. 

I guess a rock isn't a bad symbol to begin a nation on.