When I was 10 years old, Mom and Dad took me out of school for a trip to all the New England states. One of the stops was Plymouth. I didn’t know it then, but they were giving me a history of my family as well as a lesson about what it means to be an American. As seen by the picture of mom and me on the Mayflower, I was very immersed in the experience. We visited the gravesite of William Bradford, governor of the Massachusetts Colony, co-writer of the Mayflower Compact, inventor of the free market system, and what I found much later, my grandfather 13 generations removed. The words translated from Latin etched on his gravestone say: “What our forefathers with so much difficulty secured, do not basely relinquish.”
Some 58 years later, my wife Chris, Service Dog Charlie and I packed up our Entegra RV and planned out the trip to some of the footsteps of that early childhood adventure. Like that little boy on the trip so long ago, I was once again filled with excitement and anticipation as we camped just outside of Plymouth. What made this trip so different was not only the camping experience, but I had done my homework about the real backstory my parents never had told me.
I had two Mayflower grandfathers—Bradford from my Dad’s side and Richard Warren from my Mom’s side. The visit to Plymouth was emotional and meaningful. We walked through the good ship Mayflower and listened to the docent speak about the pilgrims’ lives as 132 people packed into such a small space with animals and supplies for 70 days. I realized that they were true campers, not glampers like we were in our modern RV. No complaints here, grandpas!
With all the hardship around them and cramped into such small quarters, they had the spiritual guidance and presence of mind to draft one of the most amazing freedom-binding documents in American history—The Mayflower compact. Grandfather Bradford was credited with drafting the Mayflower Compact, binding them together into a body politic in the name of God, “And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.”
With these words, 41 men agreed to govern in submission and obedience to God. And it was not just for their time on earth, but as is written on Bradford’s grave, the covenant and their sacrifices were not to be basely relinquished. Only 41 men began a nation with their signatures. This impressed me as a child, perhaps not so much with complete understanding at the time, but within my young farm boy spirit I became forever moved and awed by their words and deeds. Today, they serve as an inspiring example to me, woven into the fabric of my spirit, confirmed by my heritage, of overcoming great challenges because as Christ said in Matthew 19:26, “but with God all things are possible.”
