Emprise

Life can seem to be all about following the rules.  There is an almost dreamy decadence that comes on those rare occasions when we disregard convention and take a risk.  It’s like skinny dipping at midnight under a blanket of stars on a warm summer night.  There’s an immediate surge of adrenaline as the water somehow takes on a sublime, velvety feel, impossible to discern in swimwear in the light of day.

When a colleague leaned over our table of drinks the other evening and quoted Steve Jobs to me, saying:  “It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy,” I smiled deliciously at the thought. Ever since, though, I’ve been thinking about his subsequent sobering acknowledgment that there are so few opportunities in our daily lives to be the pirate. 

What Jobs’ statement refers to is the hiring philosophy for his creative company:   Those who work best in structure, hierarchy and protocol are better suited in conventional organizations. The people who thrive in the ambiguity of unorthodox arenas and burst with passion for what they do were the ones he wanted for his business, not just for the decidedly creative roles, but for all roles.

Clearly, at Apple, Jobs was looking for people who are swashbucklers all the time, but he also created a unique utopia where this is embraced and expected 24/7. What about the rest of us who live and work in the real world?  My immediate response to my friend was that we need to be on the look-out for those places and times in our lives when we can safely let our hair down, and that the search itself is part of what makes being the pirate so fun. 

We all have an inner pirate.  The question for me is when and to what extent to do we let her out?  I’m sure it won’t surprise you, but, to me, this is all connected to the confidence and courage unleashed by following our dreams. I was telling some new acquaintances recently that as I nudge my writing beyond the cloisters of my inner circle and receive positive feedback about its quality and resonance, I am becoming more confident in my abilities, fueled to push it out further. There is no prescribed path for how I launch it into the world, no rules about what I write or how I write, and I’m filled with a desire to come back to it again and again.  It can sometimes make my day job pale in comparison.

Following our own path is where the pirate makes her appearance.  The more time we devote to the things we love, the more confident we are in letting our true selves bleed into other aspects of our lives.  Over the last few months, I’ve felt compelled to look for avenues to introduce my writing into my job, submitting some pieces to leaders at work. I have visions of Ralphie in “A Christmas Story”, imagining the fanfare that would surround him when his teacher awards him an A + + + for his riveting theme about his Red Ryder BB gun.  But I’m also prepared to be jolted into the reality of a C grade and the comment “You’ll shoot your eye out.”  Whether there is a place for my writing at the office is yet to be seen, but hitting the send button felt that electric kind of good that bounding into the water in the buff at the bewitching hour evokes. 

Somehow that same conversation the other evening turned morose, as stories were shared about the life-changing realities of incapacitating accidents and illnesses that unsuspectingly rob people in their prime. Being middle-aged, everyone at the table could relate.  We’re at the intersection of wisdom and vitality. The time to strike is now.  I looked at my friend and said “Be the pirate.”

Maybe I’m being a little overly dramatic, but life is short.  Too short to leave your dreams stashed in a corner somewhere to be looked at later when you have more time. We need to keep our eyes open, looking harder for the places to bring out the pirate.  You only need to go skinny dipping once to be forever enamored, restless, and keenly attuned to the next opening to repeat the rush.   

Blogger’s Note:  As I was putting the finishing touches on this post, an e-mail came through from the office.  My most recent writing submission has been approved for our newsletter. They like the tone, but want me to dial it back a bit.  I guess that means I should confine skinny dipping metaphors to the blog . . .