Miles and me

"Because of my last name," writes Chicago-based freelancer David Standish, "Miles Standish had a bigger presence in my life than I really wanted. Stuff. As far as I know, when they see me, people laugh and say, “Oh, like Miles? "Yes, like Miles. By the time I was in kindergarten, this one was already a little old.

We knew Miles Standish, of course, who was a Pilgrim, in 1858 Immortality in Longfellow's Poetry (He was too shy about his love for Priscilla Mullins to tell her in person, so he sent his friend John Alden to act as a go-between to lose on the romantic front. ) In fact, the real Standish was anything but "aggressive," the author reports, "a sensitive, ill-tempered, aggressive, but unflinching violet." "Turns out he wasn't a religious fanatic either? He probably signed up with the Pilgrims because, basically, he needed a job.

Unfortunately, it was the Native Americans who got under his bad temper On the wrong track. Standish engaged in bloody conflicts with local tribes. He was also unwilling to get involved in quarrels with other immigrants who had begun to arrive on the New England coast (one of the adventurers, Thomas Morton, was killed). Called bellicose, especially the diminutive Standish, was called "Kadan Slim"), a derogatory nickname that must have annoyed Standish to no end.

, although, the author reports, things came to a point where one of Miles Standish's sons, Alexander, married Sarah Alden, daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. "I particularly like the idea that one of my ancestors might not have been Stormy Old Miles, but brought Priscilla with him," he wrote.