Here There Be Pirates

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Lyric of the Day:

Mother Mother Ocean
I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters
Since I was three feet tall
You've seen it all, you've seen it all
Watched the men who rode you
Switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasures
Few have ever seen
Most of 'em dream, most of 'em dream
Yes I am a pirate
Two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder
There's nothing to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late.

Jimmy Buffett - A Pirate Looks at 40

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I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" last night. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time - I loved the first movie, full of excitement, romance and a lot of laughs. I was not disappointed with the sequel. In fact I can't wait to see it again.

I have a weakness for pirates. The swagger, the salty smarm, the romance of adventure. Since I was a girl, I have loved the sea and those who lived and died at her hands.

I always fancied myself a pirate's lady.

I know that real pirates were not so savory. With and average age in the late 20's despite the old gray haggards oft thought of (youth was probably a necessity in order to handle the great physical demands of a life of strong-armed debauchery on turbulent seas), they were an undesirable lot - devoid of morality, conscience and code, even amongst each other. Dirty, scurvy-ridden, lacking in habits of hygiene, burned to leather by wind, sun, and sea. Not a consideration for any man - driven by greed and lust. Loathesome, rotten-souled cads that would turn your stomach at their very disposition, let alone their very smell.

In reality, would I have been drawn to these men and this lifestyle? Hardly. Despite the fact that in an odd twist of irony, one of history's most famous women pirates by the name of Grace O'Malley, was a descendant of the family which once ruled Ireland's Clew Bay region :), I don't think I'd have been seduced into the path of piracy.

Regardless, I am afforded the option of turning to the pirates of literature and movies. Handsome, chiseled, sultry, seductive rogues who brandish swords and trail sashes. Adventure draped in mischief and scoundrel, but deep down anchored with loyalty to comrades and Robin Hood-like backwards justice. Smelling not of body odor, rotting teeth and illness - but of leather, musk and rum. All handsome, romantic underlaid ruffians who would sweep a girl literally off her feet while swinging from a mainsail line. Those were the men of my dreams since I was old enough to have a crush.

In my sensible woman's head, even with the romantic view of a life under the Jolly Roger, I would never opt to follow either my own whimsies nor pursue a man under spell of the sea.

But in my girl's heart - here there be pirates.