Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 6 - Conclusion)

So i like Morgan. I like that he was quick to rally to unconventional solutions to big problems. I like that he saw in a group of misfits and outlanders the capacity to change the world. I like that he embodied the kind of poise, precision and audacity that appears to be more and more necessary to succeed in the world in which we live. I like that he helped to forge the spine for many "Pirate Charters" where, despite the despicable nature of their trade itself, exhibited more democracy, equality, generosity and character than the supposedly "civilized" cultures who often criticized them for their brutality. And finally, i like that by doing all of the above, Morgan and his ilk managed to single-handedly bring England to the proverbial table of the global goods trade and make it a "player" for global consideration for centuries to come.

No doubt by now you've noticed that i like metaphors. I like the idea of being a Smart Zombie and a Samurai. I like the tangible picture(s) that such images give me for what i'm trying to achieve. And apparently, i like Pirates! Avast!

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 5 - Playah's)

* Playah's -By the end of Morgan's career, he and his fleet of Buccanneers had very nearly harassed Spain into bankruptcy and brought England forward as a key player in the New World. So often we hear about nations who rise and fall at the success of their diplomacy or their armies, but in this case, it was actually the Crown that owed its eventual prosperity to a group of people it had only loosely backed, and even sometimes double-crossed for convenient deals or unstable truces with longstanding enemies. I wonder sometimes whether or not the same could be said of us. Can we sometimes save our own nations, families, churches, whatever, possibly by means that are completely other than those established by/through conventional norms or what has worked for centuries? What if, in another hundred years, the powers that be look back on private bands of men and women who pulled loosely-bound, rag-tag groups of outsiders together to systematically reinvent the support structures that they then depend upon rather than established government systems or long-standing social structures? I wonder... i wonder what a recipe that added Jesus to Morgan might look like in our current day. I think i'd like to find out. I think that we're trying. Doubtless, as we experiment here at GCC, the solutions don't involve larceny, murder or torture, but i wonder if they could be just as audacious and big, just as innovative and pioneering.

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 4 - The Pirate Code)

* The Pirate Code - If you happened to serve on a Spanish Galley or Dutch merchantmen, life was dangerous, difficult and, for the most part, unpleasant. Unless you were a ranking officer, you could expect to have no say in what happened on the ship, no call as to its mission or destination, no benefit reaped from jobs well-done, no part in any boon or blessing (those were reserved most often for the Captain and First Mate, and for the Company who financed them), and in return, you could be flogged, beaten or confined below deck for...well... anything, even just ranging from poorly swabbing a deck to just being at the psychotic whim of the Captain or Mate.

On a pirate vessel, however, none of the above applied. As a member of the crew, you immediately had a share in all decision-making. You helped to pick the mission, the objectives and points of plunder. You also reaped an equal share of the reward with all others, and only the Captain received a double-share. By comparison, virtually all pirate charters were egalitarian, democratic, and attempted to treat crew-members as "owners" of a shared whole. Once decided, of course, the Captains assumed full responsibility for the accomplishment of the established objectives, and the crew snapped to unswervingly, becoming a single body bound by common mission and the promise of fortune.

I love the irony that the best chance at egalitarianism and democracy that you would find in the Golden Age of Piracy was on a pirate ship! Sometimes, it seems, that beauty can be found in the oddest places! Sometimes i wonder what people 200 years will think when they look back at the "charters" that bound us together as people of faith.

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 3 - Ragamuffin Army & Poise, Precision and Audacity)

* Ragamuffin Army - By the time Morgan began to piece together what became known as the legendary Bretheren of the Coast (a loose coalition of marauders who operated in the Carribean Islands in the 17th Century), he was recruiting from the most unlikely groups of people imaginable. Did you know that the term "Buccanneer" actually originates from the fact that many of the mountain men who rallied to Morgan's banner were called "barbecuers" (i.e. "boucaners", from which we also get our word "bacon") by local inhabitants because of their uncouth practices of openly flaying, firing and eating the wild pigs who often roamed the islands? These groups were mostly comprised of those whom conventional society had completely forgotten or abandoned. They were the runaway or free slaves, the bankrupt, the poor, the desperate, the landless, the uneducated, the absolute bottom of the proverbial barrell. And yet, they liked Morgan as he promised them an opportunity to rally and prove themselves, rising from the ranks of the forgotten and rigid classes of reinforced aristocracy and becoming, eventually, what Talty calls "pound for pound, one of the most elite fighting forces on the planet...".

* Poise, Precision and Audacity -Morgan consistently did the impossible. Throughout his career, the Spanish found themselves retreating into supposed impossiblities, only to have to later eat their own words later. "He'll never attack Portobello... it's too well defended!" Then Morgan sent letters of ransom to bewildered Spanish authorities after sacking the fort in one of the most daring moonlight amphibious raids ever attempted in maritime warfare. "Well! At least we still have Panama! He would never dare attack Panama! We have nearly 1,500 infantry and cavalry there!" Then, after 1671, Panama belonged to Morgan. Although he was careful with the lives of his men, he was simply undaunted by... well... anything. There was no limit to his ambition (and, unfortunately, his greed), and because he simply dared, he pushed the boundaries of what was even thougth possible by the ruling Spanish heirarchy, and forced them to acknowledge England and its rag-tag bands of Privateers as a real menace. You cannot read about Morgan without walking away with the notion that poise, precision and audacity account for much.

I LOVE the idea of gathering "people at the margins" (i.e. the "zombies" i speak of in my previous post) for a cause that ultimately becomes successful, and i love the audacity that Morgan displayed in rallying the forgotten to a cause that made the Spanish Empire tremble!

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 2 - Broke but Smart)

Henry Morgan was a rare individual, and i won't go into a lengthy history here, but there were a few details about his life that really stood out to me, and reinforced the notion in my mind that in many ways, what i really think that we're attempting to accomplish in our lives as we attempt to follow Jesus in the world in which we are emerging is "becoming pirates"! Here's what i mean:

* Broke but Smart - "Modern" Piracy (piracy itself is older than the ancient Greeks) was started by King Henry VIII after he had to sell his navy to pay off his debts, and emerged out of the need of desperate kings who could not finance their own navies, but who would offer a sort of "license" to opportunistic or desperate men who wished to raid enemy ships, forts and cities in order to carry off whatever could be of any value. This practice was given a veneer of legitimacy under the guise of being called "Privateering" (Piracy sounds like such a nasty word... so why not call it something "nicer"). In return, these mercenaries agreed to pay the crown as much as 16% of their total (10% to the Lord Admiral and 6% to the King), and their only real limitation to what they could accomplish was their own audacity. This unorthodox approach to solving really big problems (i.e. financial shortages and economic collapse from within, hostile enemies on every border baying for your blood from without) required cash-strapped kings to completely re-think conventional notions of funding their empires and defending their borders without having large standing armies. Sure, it was nice that Spain had a dedicated Navy with huge, gold-gilded ships and highly disciplined crew ranks, but small, heavily armed sloops of freed slaves, runaways, mountain men and drifters who were given freedom, opportunity and a chance to succeed as far as their dreams could take them eventually proved a match for even the highly disciplined fleets of armed Spanish, Dutch and Portugese forces. This was the world that Henry Morgan inherited as he began his pirate career.

Like most businesses, families and individuals, we in local churches, NGO's, local agencies and other such entities often find ourselves (particularly in our current economy...sheesh!) in positions where cash is scarce, demand and need are high, and pressure is on to deliver better and better solutions to really large problems that confront us on every end. I think we'll need to increasingly consider what it might look like to unleash the force of not only volunteers in our communities, but businesses and entrepreneurially minded people as well in capacities heretofore unexplored. More on that later, but the environment of Morgan's day isn't TOO different in many ways from our environment.

Metaphors to Muse Upon: Pirates (Part 1 - Intro)

No doubt, pirates receive far too noble a wrap from conventional Hollywood media. I mean, c'mon, it's pretty hard to hate Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, no matter how much dirt and grime you smear on them, right? But in reality, old-world pirates were nasty critters, and seeing the hated "Jolly Roger" flapping from a mast like a black streamer on the fin of a shark in your wake was enough to make merchantmen and even heavily armed Spanish warships tremble for good reason. Pirates were robbers, thieves, muggers and murderers, plain and simple. They were adventurers and [usually] desperate men (and sometimes women) who would really rather have just as soon run you through with a rusty cutlass as looked at you... unless they could ransom you, and in which case, you'd better make sure that your family paid up because there was no need for them to exhibit much patience or cordiality otherwise.

But there's something about the swarthy swashbucklers that has always fascinated me. Perhaps it's the fact that they absolutely flew in the face of a dominating aristocracy (i.e. the Spanish Empire) to live lives of relative freedom, equality and adventure. Or maybe i just like things that tend to be bound together in tight, usually small, hyper-effective (and sometimes lethal) bands of men and women wound around a common purpose. But whatever it is, i've long been a fan of pirate lore and history, and recently read Stephan Talty's book (Empire of Blue Water) about one of pirate history's most famous (and notorious) pirate captains: Captain Sir Henry Morgan (yes... the Rum is named after him as well).

So stay tuned for why after reading this particular book, i was moved to consider how Morgan and his men exhibited some particularly 'Smart Zombie" characteristics, and why i think contemplating their history is worthwhile in regard to how we approach our lives today.