Pirate worlds collide: courage over comfort

Yesterday I was treated to an extraordinary and gorgeous evening at the Cymbrogi Futures HQ in Lawrenny, a gem of a place nestled in the outstanding geography that is Pembrokeshire. An evening for memorable meetings, vistas, and conversations. And then, by chance or possibly fated, across a space of conjoined thinkers, we pirates, found each other.

A meeting of new pirates, an interesting phenomena indeed – expect to be challenged and to question – there is no immediate acceptance that you are entitled to bear the name!

There was an energetic and loud but serious exchange of values, code, and vision followed by some fun sidebar threads, such as who you would most align to from history. Jamie Burdett suggested for me ‘Ann Bonny’, – fiery and rebellious, and of Irish heritage…

I can imagine that passing pirate crews would have sized each other up and challenged loyalties before settling down for a beer on land…

To an outsider, it must fairly seem absurd.

There is a certain knowing, when one true 21st-century change agent pirate meets another, -in the unspoken and the tacit. You can almost smell ‘good trouble’ – but you are also drawn in excitedly into the issues and challenges – to discuss how the 21st century golden age piracy code legitimises our battle plans.

I think there are a lot of people who have become disillusioned and disheartened by the systems that govern our lives, and it really won’t be too long before our small mutinies grow into powerful movements for purposeful and meaningful change – and boy does power re-stock when you meet with fellow beings who are hell bent on re-humanising the system – and take challenge over comfort any day!

---

It Isn’t Pirate to Seek Permission – by Selena Godden

Because if we had just one hour in your sun

We’d show you how it’s done

We’d show you how quickly things can turn around

Go on, give us one hour in your sun

And watch us bloom a field of colour

Look, look how our labours blossom

Look how we flourish with no sun, no heat or warmth

Because we know how to make love grow in the frost

 In the hard dirt, in the winter underground

We make magic mushroom from shit

And spin gold from flakes of hard life

Our hunger it bears, our thirst we share

No boots, no armour, nothing but love drives this

And love is where this comes from and

Love is who this is for and love knows

We have nothing but each other to protect this

No gloves, bare hands, no certainties

And no money, no, never any money

So go on, I dare you, and I dare it

Give us a go on your sun and watch how we’d share it

Give us a paddle in your sunlight, a splash of shiny-shiny

One hour of the sun that is fixed on you and your privilege

 For look how strong we are and how tall we can already stand

 Without your sun, without your gold and

 Without your permission.

*

Taken from  How to Be More Pirate: 2020 by Sam Conniff & Alex Barker , Own It, London

---