Appleseed - Sacrifice
I went to an “Appleseed Shoot” a couple weekends ago (4/16 and 4/17). Without getting lost in details, it was a 2-day event covering rifle marksmanship fundamentals, Revolutionary War history, and admonition to be a positive force in your community. You can find more info at www.appleseedinfo.org. I now have material for multiple blog posts from just one weekend, making the remaining challenge getting the words out of my head onto paper before they are lost.
(Disclaimer: Politics and firearm ownership are often highly-charged subjects. Over the course of our discussion, I will present my life the way it is with regard to these two subjects. You don't have to agree with the way my life is, but that's not what I want to write about.)
History at Appleseed is presented as a series of stories, each with a moral. Now, when I was in school, I avoided biology and such things because they involved much memorization without easy patterns or rationalization. To some, history is the same way – lists of names and dates with no continuing narrative or rationale. As a person who both speaks and understands in stories, history presented as stories helped some of the morals to sink in better this weekend. I'd like to particularly focus on the story of Samuel Prescott and Lydia Mulliken.
Wikipedia (or Google if you prefer) will set the scene in the early morning of April 19, 1775. Paul Revere and William Dawes had been sent out to raise the countryside in advance of the British military action. Samuel Prescott – Dr. Prescott, actually, as he practiced medicine in the town of Concord – was on his way home from visiting his fiancee (Lydia) who lived in Lexington. From here, I adapt the story as it was told by one of our weekend instructors.
After completing their prearranged route, Revere and Dawes were riding to Concord to secure a colonist supply of arms and ammunition when they ran into Prescott on his way home from visiting Lydia. This was about 1:00 AM. The three rode purposefully, as they knew they were likely not far ahead of the British advance. Soon, all three were accosted by the British, but Prescott was able to escape arrest. Traveling on and rousing yet more minutemen and militia, he arrived in Lexington in time to see the first shots exchanged at Lexington Green.
In the way of this world, two people who love each other and get engaged are generally planning to get married. Everyone likes weddings, at least most people. Weddings are a time of celebration with family and friends and stuff. Engagements are also exciting, also less so and in a different manner. Engagements are a time of both waiting and frantic activity, of planning and organizing. Engagements are exciting because of the promise of something to come – a wedding where all may be excited with the new couple.
Weddings are a time for memories. Nowadays, we remember with photos, videos, and even those odd little favors at your reception table to thank you for coming. In the 18th century, they definitely didn't have the first two and probably skipped the third as well. Imagine, though, if you will, how a wedding portrait may have looked in Samuel and Lydia's mind, had they conceived such a thing. When I heard this story, the words were assisted by a group of volunteers and some light role-playing.
Well, one should definitely start with the happy couple themselves. In the telling, the storyteller picked a married couple and stood them in a blank space. Hopefully you can follow along in your mind's eye. In most weddings that I've attended, family has been an important fixture. Samuel came from a family of eight kids, while Lydia had four brothers and two sisters. Often today, brides/grooms pick family members for bridesmaids and groomsmen, right? It seems like an easy step to assume Samuel and Lydia might have done something similar. In our little roleplaying arena, add in your mind Lydia's older brother Nathanial and Samuel's brother Abel, proudly standing behind their brother and sister. This looks like a pretty good start, but everyone knows that a wedding needs a preacher. Someone needs to say “...pronounce you man and wife” and prompt lines for vows and read “I do's” and stuff. My memory fails me as to the preacher's name, but our roleplayer stood proudly beside the “happy people” already assembled.
I've been in the situation of looking into my future and seeing happiness and joy, even as these people, these families must have. Into every life a little rain must fall, though, and for the Prescott and Mulliken families, the rain was the American Revolution.
Samuel's brother Abel was sent to some more towns to spread the alarm even further, but on his return a British soldier recognized him and shot him. Four months later, he died of his wounds.
Lydia's brother was also a member of the militia and fought bravely for his country and his freedom. Within a year of April 19, 1775, he would die of illness while on campaign.
The reverend whose name I am disappointed to not remember? He died within a year of the war's start.
For each death, remove in your mind's eye the associated person. If you've been keeping count, we're back to just Samuel and Lydia. There is a sentiment in the world that says that if two people have each other, then nothing else in the world matters. Duty called for everyone, though, and Samuel went to war as well. At first, maybe Lydia received letters from her beloved, but then there was nothing.
Samuel Prescott died in a prisoner-of-war camp in Canada in 1777. Lydia never heard of his capture or death. She waited for eight years – EIGHT YEARS – without word.
Remember above, I mentioned the fight in Lexington? As the British soldiers left town, they set fire to some of the town buildings. According to the story, the Mullikens lost all their worldly possessions in that fire.
The image of our roleplayed “Lydia” standing alone while all others had left her was one not easily passed over. The story, as it was told to me, ended in one simple question: “How much did Lydia Mulliken give for her ideals?” Almost unanimously, our group responded: Everything. Her love, her family, her worldly goods. Everything.
That's a pretty heavy story, isn't it? After that, I started looking inside myself, and I had lots of questions. I often have lots of questions and some of them I even find answers for. You know what they say - “far more dangerous the unquestioned answer than the unanswered question”. Even Google doesn't know who “they” are for that one, sorry; but I digress.
Lydia and Samuel were able to sacrifice that much because they had a cause that they strongly believed in – that of a fledgling nation and living in peace and freedom. Did they give all? Yes. Are our lives today richer for it? Unquestionably.
Over the last couple years, I spent a lot of time and emotion setting something up. I had an amazing relationship set up with a young lady. We loved each other, and we were slowly walking toward something more long-term, investing time, effort, and emotion.
Then it all burned down, burned in a fire lit by the girl I trusted. In a moment, in a flash, everything I had worked for and was striving for was stripped away, leaving me alone and bleeding once again. Lydia gave everything for a country. I apparently gave all I had given for a lie, for an unrealistic dream.
Now, I don't figure that those who marched to meet the Redcoats really knew how the fight would turn out in the end. They very much had faith as an “...evidence of things not seen”, believing that their sacrifice would be worthwhile. I have no such assurance – maybe it all is just a futile effort, “running down a dream” to quote Tom Petty. I can look back at 18th century history and know that it's OK now. However, that part of my story hasn't been written yet, and only God can say how it turns out.
Nevertheless, I wonder.
Sources:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Samuel_Prescott
http://www.rense.com/general44/pres.htm
http://www.concordma.com/magazine/julaug01/samuelprescott.html
(Disclaimer: Politics and firearm ownership are often highly-charged subjects. Over the course of our discussion, I will present my life the way it is with regard to these two subjects. You don't have to agree with the way my life is, but that's not what I want to write about.)
History at Appleseed is presented as a series of stories, each with a moral. Now, when I was in school, I avoided biology and such things because they involved much memorization without easy patterns or rationalization. To some, history is the same way – lists of names and dates with no continuing narrative or rationale. As a person who both speaks and understands in stories, history presented as stories helped some of the morals to sink in better this weekend. I'd like to particularly focus on the story of Samuel Prescott and Lydia Mulliken.
Wikipedia (or Google if you prefer) will set the scene in the early morning of April 19, 1775. Paul Revere and William Dawes had been sent out to raise the countryside in advance of the British military action. Samuel Prescott – Dr. Prescott, actually, as he practiced medicine in the town of Concord – was on his way home from visiting his fiancee (Lydia) who lived in Lexington. From here, I adapt the story as it was told by one of our weekend instructors.
After completing their prearranged route, Revere and Dawes were riding to Concord to secure a colonist supply of arms and ammunition when they ran into Prescott on his way home from visiting Lydia. This was about 1:00 AM. The three rode purposefully, as they knew they were likely not far ahead of the British advance. Soon, all three were accosted by the British, but Prescott was able to escape arrest. Traveling on and rousing yet more minutemen and militia, he arrived in Lexington in time to see the first shots exchanged at Lexington Green.
In the way of this world, two people who love each other and get engaged are generally planning to get married. Everyone likes weddings, at least most people. Weddings are a time of celebration with family and friends and stuff. Engagements are also exciting, also less so and in a different manner. Engagements are a time of both waiting and frantic activity, of planning and organizing. Engagements are exciting because of the promise of something to come – a wedding where all may be excited with the new couple.
Weddings are a time for memories. Nowadays, we remember with photos, videos, and even those odd little favors at your reception table to thank you for coming. In the 18th century, they definitely didn't have the first two and probably skipped the third as well. Imagine, though, if you will, how a wedding portrait may have looked in Samuel and Lydia's mind, had they conceived such a thing. When I heard this story, the words were assisted by a group of volunteers and some light role-playing.
Well, one should definitely start with the happy couple themselves. In the telling, the storyteller picked a married couple and stood them in a blank space. Hopefully you can follow along in your mind's eye. In most weddings that I've attended, family has been an important fixture. Samuel came from a family of eight kids, while Lydia had four brothers and two sisters. Often today, brides/grooms pick family members for bridesmaids and groomsmen, right? It seems like an easy step to assume Samuel and Lydia might have done something similar. In our little roleplaying arena, add in your mind Lydia's older brother Nathanial and Samuel's brother Abel, proudly standing behind their brother and sister. This looks like a pretty good start, but everyone knows that a wedding needs a preacher. Someone needs to say “...pronounce you man and wife” and prompt lines for vows and read “I do's” and stuff. My memory fails me as to the preacher's name, but our roleplayer stood proudly beside the “happy people” already assembled.
I've been in the situation of looking into my future and seeing happiness and joy, even as these people, these families must have. Into every life a little rain must fall, though, and for the Prescott and Mulliken families, the rain was the American Revolution.
Samuel's brother Abel was sent to some more towns to spread the alarm even further, but on his return a British soldier recognized him and shot him. Four months later, he died of his wounds.
Lydia's brother was also a member of the militia and fought bravely for his country and his freedom. Within a year of April 19, 1775, he would die of illness while on campaign.
The reverend whose name I am disappointed to not remember? He died within a year of the war's start.
For each death, remove in your mind's eye the associated person. If you've been keeping count, we're back to just Samuel and Lydia. There is a sentiment in the world that says that if two people have each other, then nothing else in the world matters. Duty called for everyone, though, and Samuel went to war as well. At first, maybe Lydia received letters from her beloved, but then there was nothing.
Samuel Prescott died in a prisoner-of-war camp in Canada in 1777. Lydia never heard of his capture or death. She waited for eight years – EIGHT YEARS – without word.
Remember above, I mentioned the fight in Lexington? As the British soldiers left town, they set fire to some of the town buildings. According to the story, the Mullikens lost all their worldly possessions in that fire.
The image of our roleplayed “Lydia” standing alone while all others had left her was one not easily passed over. The story, as it was told to me, ended in one simple question: “How much did Lydia Mulliken give for her ideals?” Almost unanimously, our group responded: Everything. Her love, her family, her worldly goods. Everything.
That's a pretty heavy story, isn't it? After that, I started looking inside myself, and I had lots of questions. I often have lots of questions and some of them I even find answers for. You know what they say - “far more dangerous the unquestioned answer than the unanswered question”. Even Google doesn't know who “they” are for that one, sorry; but I digress.
Lydia and Samuel were able to sacrifice that much because they had a cause that they strongly believed in – that of a fledgling nation and living in peace and freedom. Did they give all? Yes. Are our lives today richer for it? Unquestionably.
Over the last couple years, I spent a lot of time and emotion setting something up. I had an amazing relationship set up with a young lady. We loved each other, and we were slowly walking toward something more long-term, investing time, effort, and emotion.
Then it all burned down, burned in a fire lit by the girl I trusted. In a moment, in a flash, everything I had worked for and was striving for was stripped away, leaving me alone and bleeding once again. Lydia gave everything for a country. I apparently gave all I had given for a lie, for an unrealistic dream.
Now, I don't figure that those who marched to meet the Redcoats really knew how the fight would turn out in the end. They very much had faith as an “...evidence of things not seen”, believing that their sacrifice would be worthwhile. I have no such assurance – maybe it all is just a futile effort, “running down a dream” to quote Tom Petty. I can look back at 18th century history and know that it's OK now. However, that part of my story hasn't been written yet, and only God can say how it turns out.
Nevertheless, I wonder.
Sources:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Samuel_Prescott
http://www.rense.com/general44/pres.htm
http://www.concordma.com/magazine/julaug01/samuelprescott.html
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posted by The student of life at 8:14 PM
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