A Pirate’s Life for Me

I would love to be a pirate, roaming the open waters, searching for treasure, with nothing else but my crewmates, the sea and a bottle of rum… yo-ho! If I’m lucky, I might go head-to-head with a rival ship, blasting our cannons, swinging aboard their deck to have a duel to the death, pistols firing away…okay maybe I don’t want that part of the pirate life, just some parts of it. As I continue to do independent research on pirates, I have begun to take a step back and ask myself the question: what is it about pirates that I find so damn fascinating?

To begin with, there is something so liberating about the ocean. Not only is it full of amazing lifeforms, many of which have yet to be discovered, but it remains such a mystery. Who knows what awaits thousands of feet into the abyss? I like to think there is a kraken at the deepest point of the water, who is ready to strike at any foe who is foolish enough to roam into his lair. Maybe deep down there’s an even bigger shark that rules the darkness. As the great Qui-Gon Jin once wisely said: “There’s always a bigger fish". 

But aside from the mystery, there is something oddly liberating about the ocean. Separating yourself away from the land (and everything that is happening on that land) could be an invigorating experience. Flashback to the 17^th or 18^th century, when people became pirates to rid themselves of the rule of their government, freeing themselves from political agendas, legal responsibilities, taxes…and so forth. Piracy gave people (mostly men) the opportunity to live the kind of life that you could only see in the movies (then again, pirates didn’t have movies, so...books?) In the face of a Trump administration, it probably doesn’t seem like a bad idea to some people right about now…

Lastly, it just seems so cool. Sleeping in the wooden cabins, rocking to the sway of the ocean, the smell of the salt in the air. Every morning you get to watch the sun rise up into the sky, and at night, the stars light your journey through the waves. Your only job is to keep a steady course, and be a swashbuckler when the time is right. I really do owe it to Captain Jack Sparrow for making piracy seem like the sweetest job in the world.

But for now I’ll keep dreaming…first I’ll learn to sail, then to navigate the Caribbean (I’ve already got the rum part on lockdown). In short, it’s a pirate’s life for me!