La Xof Reaching El Alex

     Wow, I don’t even know where to start!  Planet Earth is magnificent, even though some of these creatures (here they call themselves humans) are a little strange. They ride these beasts of animals, Horses, to get from one place to another, without even being scared of falling off.  I do feel sorry for these horses though, I mean seriously who would ever want to be ridden right? Spending some time with these people I have acquired a new taste for this magnificent drink called Alcohol.  At first it tasted disgusting, like poison; I couldn’t understand how or why these humans would drink something like that.  After a couple times though, I started to realize that it would put me in this euphoric state of mind where everything becomes funnier and more exciting.  No wonder these people drink it quite often!

     Even though I have found some very fun things to do on Planet Earth, don’t worry, I have also been working hard, trying to figure out how this society works. I have been meeting with different humans and reading many different written scriptures. I have discovered that there is this character called God that these humans believe in.  They believe he is the creator of all and he provides them with a moral guidance of how to live their lives.  Within this belief, there are 2 groups, Puritans and Enlightenment which were two of the dominate founding groups in North America that I have found to be very interesting. I will explain these 2 groups of people that helped establish North America so you can get some understanding for the start of this society and how they relate to present time.   

     Let me first tell you a little bit about these 2 groups so you can fully understand them. The Puritans were a group of people that came from England (another part of Planet Earth) to start a new life with their religious beliefs. They believes that God “saves” those that he wishes and that Jesus, Gods son, died for only the chosen ones, not for everyone, that everyone is born sinful (“Chapter 1: Early American Literature to 1700-A Brief Introduction”). They believe that some people are inferior to them, based on their beliefs and skin color.

     The Enlightenment group on the other hand, which is more similar to the Northern American society now, believes in this God too, but believes in the natural goodness of all humans, not just the chosen ones.  They believe everyone is born with a clean slate, and people are not inferior to them based on beliefs or skin color (Chapter 2: Colonial Period: 1700-1800 - A Brief Introduction).

    To get a better idea of these 2 belief systems and how they helped to shape North America I got together with a couple humans here for some coffee. They gave me some good information and also gave me some writings to read.

The most interesting Puritan writer I read about was John Winthrop.  Winthrop was a Puritan from England and believed in reforming the country.  He became the governor after arriving here in North America. He believed that working together under the will of God was the best way to bring this country forward. Winthrop states in his book, A Model of Christian Charity, “When there is no other means whereby our Christian brother may be relieved in his distress, we must help him beyond our ability, rather than tempt God in putting him upon help by miraculous or extraordinary mean”(Winthrop 149). With this I think he meant that instead of letting God help these individual people figure out their own troubles, they have to work together as one to achieve reform in this new society they were building.

     One of the humans I was having coffee with, Crystal, made a very good point regarding Winthrop.  She said that Winthrop reminded her of a modern day reformist.  Crystal said, “Winthrop states how people can act for the greater good of their community. This is how we are convinced today”(Malm). She makes a very good point because this North American society seems to do just that, work together in groups to reform all types of issues they have, whether its political, religious or anything else these humans want change in.

     Even though Winthrop was a very successful leader here in North America in his time and believed in reform, he still had a closed-mind to anyone who didn’t believe in his religion. This is where other humans, who didn’t necessarily believe in God to the extreme of Puritans, started to reform and over a period of time and came out with The Enlightenment period.

The Enlightenment was a movement whose goals were to understand the natural world and humankind’s place in it on the basis of reason, without turning to religious beliefs (Hackett). They believed that God was the creator of everything, but that each individual had the potential to be as successful as the rest, that he doesn’t delegate who survives and who doesn’t. Thomas Paine, a pro-American author, is a very good example of an author during The Enlightenment. He writes in his book, The Age of Reason that, “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit”(Paine). He doesn’t believe that you can use these religious institutions as a way of setting the law in the land, which is more prominent to the way the society works today. Paine also states that he doesn’t, “ condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine”(Paine). Isaac Sullivan, one of the other humans I had coffee with couldn’t have explained it better.  Sullivan said that in the Enlightenment, everyone has the capacity to think and reason and therefor everyone’s thinking is valid in its own right, not through religion (Sullivan).

     Another prominent writer during the Enlightenment that was introduced to me was the poet, Philip Freneau. Freneau has been called “the Poet of the American Revolution; he used his poetry to express his Enlightenment ideas using metaphors and allusions throughout his poetry. In the poem “On Mr Paine’s Rights of Man” Freneau uses these Enlightenment ideas to show that humans will follow nature’s laws if it is just allowed.  He states, “Without a king, the laws maintain their sway/While honour bids each generous heart obey”(ll. 41-42). By using the word King he is referring to the laws of the country that have been placed, and with the word laws he is referring to nature’s law. So he is trying to say that without the rules of the society they had in place at the time, society would still function just by reasoning itself.  Freneau shows some basic concepts that this country has grown to have over time. 

     As you can image, this is only the beginning of the start of North America. I have so much more to learn about how this society has grown, this is just the beginning.  I hope that you, El Alex will allow me to stay here for as long as it takes, to continue this investigation on the start of the North American society.

I hope all is well and I will be sending some of this magical drink for you to try! Don't drink it to fast =)

LA XOF