Agathon Associates Wishes You Happy Thanksgiving

Agathon Associates, will be closed Thursday, November 22nd, in celebration of Thanksgiving Day, a major holiday in the United States. All government offices and most businesses will be closed for the day. Many business, other than retail, will also be closed on Friday, the 23rd.

The following column ran in the November 16, 2018, issue of the Boston Post-Gazette

Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock
If today
Any shock they should try to stem
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock
Plymouth Rock would land on them"
--"Anything Goes," Cole Porter, 1934.

Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, Poultry, and Pumpkin Pie will all be on the menu next week as we Americans of every origin re-enact and re-interpret the story of that first Thanksgiving in 1621. Somehow, in the story of those Englishmen and women of a strict Calvinist religion, we find meanings to suit the needs of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation.

Originally headed for the northern part of the Virginia Colony -- roughly in the area where New York City is now located -- they ended up landing off-course, up here in what would become New England. Being out of the bounds of any established colony, where a colonial charter formed the basis for civil society, the Mayflower passengers found themselves, technically, outside of the law. Their response? They would remain loyal subjects of the king, but they would create their own local laws. Pilgrims, who made the passage for religious reasons, and others who crossed the Atlantic for commercial gain, agreed to live together in the New World under equal laws created democratically "for the General good."

The Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11, 1620 (Julian Calendar, the 21st in our Gregorian Calendar) on board the ship Mayflower which was at anchor in Provincetown Harbor. In it they agreed to: "solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, 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." And, thus, was established the first experiment in limited self-government in North America.

Much has changed since 1621. The American of 2018 is one that the Pilgrims could never have imagined. Yet, their faith, their perseverance, and their early experiment in democracy, still continue to inspire Americans.

May God bless all the readers of the Post-Gazette with his bounty. May he bring all traveling over the weekend safely to their destinations. May he open our hearts to be attentive to the needs of those less fortunate. Happy Thanksgiving 2018!