I'm not an English Lit. major and I'm not a history buff. But I have come to really appreciate the literature and history we've studied. It's been an eye-opener for me and has sparked a new interest in literature and history.

Some of you probably went right through the "Walking" portion of the assigned readings. I did not. In fact, I found myself "poring" over the words because I didn't want to misunderstand or miss anything. All of the readings, books included, are marked up and I found myself groping at first, then seeing all the connections, I became more at ease and delighted in the reading and logging and blogging

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I appreciate the readings (Walking) that parallel the history reading. I don't know how else to say it. I started making connections in addition to other musings, like: "I didn't know that." "So that's why they did that!" After reading Errand Into the Wilderness, William Bradford & the History of the Plymouth Plantation, John Winthrop, and then Cotton Mather my understanding of why the Pilgrims came, the firm belief in the "errand" they had, the struggle they went through to establish themselves, the interaction with native Americans, etc., I can see why John and Abigail Adams were so very religious, and that a lot of those who attended university back then, as has been mentioned in another blog, started out to train for the ministry. It also makes sense why they founded this nation on Christian principles. Christians came here for religious freedom. Thomas Jefferson was a proponent of free exercise of religion.

There was a blog I read today where Nathaniel Hawthorne was mentioned and I wanted to relate a connection I'd made with that. Hawthorne's father was a sea captain, whose father was one of the judges at the Salem witch trials. The quote: "Not to be deficient in this particular, the author has provided himself with a moral - the truth, namely, that the wrong doing of one generation lives into successive ones." The whole idea of people coming here on an "errand" from God, and the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims bound themselves to, and the "Hell, fire, and damnation" sermons that apparently were the norm back then, and then to fail in that errand, then the Salem witch trials and Cotton Mather, it makes sense that Hawthorne would make that statement in his book, The House of Seven Gables. Was he brooding over what his grandfather had participated in? Was he bothered by it? Did it haunt him? Don't know those answers. His writing is macabre. Very dark. His behavior was also abnormal, immature, like the girl not being asked to prom, as was mentioned. I am not a psychiatrist, but I was wondering if any of you had thought about these things and if you had any other notions or conclusions.

I am so grateful for the new insights and growth I've made as a learner/scholar and appreciate the path that has been laid out before us and the preparation we've received so that we might appreciate what we will go through soon. I've appreciated reading other blogs and the ideas that have come from that have also been helpful.