Cooped Up? Get Uncooped.

First, a little background. When I was a teenager, I took trips through a wilderness adventure camp. One camp tradition relating to these trips was "trail notes." Before a group went on a long trip (30+ days), friends, family, and coworkers were invited to add small notes to a bag. Every morning of the trip, the group members got to read a note aloud. The notes usually consisted of cartoons, quotations, or good tidings.

Anyway, on one trip I went on, the boys' group that went out at the same time got a trail note that consisted of five words: "Live it like a pirate!"

The phrase has been stuck in the back of my head ever since. What does it mean, exactly? How does one go about living like a pirate?

Here are the five "pirate principles" I've come up with, based upon reliable scholarly sources like Pirates of the Caribbean.

No hesitation If you want something, go for it. Life is short. Particularly if you're a pirate, as you're liable to be caught and hanged.

No mercy Kill the prisoners! Er, I mean, don't have any mercy on the mental, emotional, and financial obstacles that get in your way of your dreams.

No apologies This was actually a New Year's resolution of mine once, to stop apologizing for things I didn't do, can't control, or don't actually feel sorry about. Try it. It's much harder than you think.

No regrets Have you ever done something stupid? Of course you have. But you learned from it. You wouldn't be who you are today, where you are today, if you hadn't made all the decisions, good and bad, that you've  made in your lifetime. Who was it who said, "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment?" Stop kicking yourself over something you did in the past. Learn from it and move on already. 

Painting by Howard Pyle. Public domain image.

Resources:

Pirattitude From the guys responsible for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I haven't read it so I can't vouch for it, but I liked the title so I put it in here.

Pirates! It's a young-adult book, but I really enjoyed it. And I'm pretty picky.

Under the Black Flag: the romance and reality of life among the pirates

• pirates
• life
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