Yilin and I went to my parents' house for the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was great: I got to sit around and just do nothing. We got to see my brother and his girlfriend, my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, etc. Oh yeah, we ate turkey. ;)
But the whole Thanksgiving-and-Pilgrims thing got me to thinking: they brought seeds and potatoes and other foodstuffs over with them. It seems like an obvious thing, to take what you need to plant crops and not just what you need to eat on the transatlantic journey. But would I have done the same? Even though I consider myself reasonably intelligent, somehow the answer is "no".
I think I would take enough for the journey with a little extra, but I wouldn't have thought about planting crops when I got to shore. I probably just would've assumed that there were edible plants somewhere, but plenty of fish, fowl, and game for me to hunt and kill and eat. Bread? I can live without that. Meat? Absurd! Live without meat?! Preposterous.
I guess that would've been my role in the New World: a hunter. Maybe a hunter/gatherer. Certainly not a farmer, unless it were necessary. Perhaps I would be more of a livestock kinda farmer, domesticating wild animals or something. Sure, the pilgrims needed farmers, but who really wanted to live without meat?
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3 comments:
Joe. He choo-chooses to live with out meat.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, but I have to say I was disappointed in my eating performance this year.
this year was my worst eating performance ever in terms of quantity. i have come to accept that i am not the man i used to be, and therefore will never polish off 5+ plates of anything, except maybe popcorn.
If you eat only meat, wouldn't you die of scurvy? Which would mean you can no longer eat meat. You would certainly think of this, Josh. Thus, you would bring the seeds of at least some citrus plants. Your new world will be a world of meat, oranges, and meat cooked in orange sauce.
Not bad, I think.
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