Pirates

There's something I'd like to clear up. I am not a pirate. At least, not in the literal, technical sense. I don't commit robbery on the high seas, or in territorial water of any nation (an important distinction). I don't commit robbery at all. Yet many people refer to me as a pirate, and it is not an impression that I seek to undo. Sometimes I encourage it. My friend and former shipmate Abby sent me an email, saying "I saw Captain Blackbeard's College of Piracy and couldn't help but think of you."

Thankfully there are senses of meaning other than technical and literal. In an aesthetic, romantic sense, I like pirates. They are free to move about at will. They adventure. They sing songs. They enjoy life. These pirates are movie pirates, adventure-novel pirates, and ballad pirates, but they are pirates nonetheless, and until the Somali Pirates, they were the only pirates we had. So get your eyepatches out.