Rule # 2019: A Pirate looks at 59
In the final days of the year I find myself not doing as much assessment of the last year as prep work for the year to come.
This will be my final year in my 50’s, the decade my father had always told me that it would be my best. He had given me insight not to fear my fifties but to embrace them as a years of success. That advice helped me look into the challenges of the decade and always see the clear sky ahead. It was simple “Don Hill’ wisdom but so accurate.
This blog was designed to be a map that plots the course to my children when they need advice and I am no longer around to dispense it. ( you know in 40 or 50 years)
As all good cartographers know the challenge is to take the information from the past and build a more accurate view of the seas, to build on what my Dad had given to me.
Yes, the 50’s are the best years so far but I think the decade especially good because its a decade that you final realize that you are a Pirate. Jimmy Buffett has the song a “Pirate looks at forty” that painted a sad look at the future when “The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder”. He was wrong, he wrote it when he was 40 and had no idea about what 50’s would be for him. ( I’m sorry Jimmy no one bats 1000)
To me being a Pirate is when you realize that the rules are there to be broken, and life is given to us as a gift to be seized. As a Pirate you realize that we all captain of our own fate and that every ship that approaches is an opportunity and every island a place to relax and bury some treasure and drink some rum. Pirates understand that life is fleeting and they may find themselves at the short end of a rope any day, so time is not to be wasted. It is powerful to understand that we are mortal and this will all end one day, it can give you a sense of dread and depression or inspire you to get the most of what life offers. I highly recommend the second choice.
And being a Pirate you get to swagger a bit in life. Not the drunken Captain Sparrow walk, but to walk through life as man that has seen a few battles and survived them in spite of the odds. Its confidence to know that things are going to be throw in you path daily to slow you down, but know most of them disappear with a stern stare and a loud ” Arrrgh” in their direction. And the few that don’t like bad hips give you the limp of character that defines a life that is truly lived.
I have been surprised by the joys of pirating. Yes there has been financial success, but more importantly great adventures. The move to Florida, the selling of the businesses, the starting of new ones, the joy of a new knee and the deepening of love of my family became part of the journey. Who knew how wonderful the feeling of talking to your 2 yr old (gifted) granddaughter would be, and how you would understand what it meant to have your “heart melt”.
As a Pirate you also quickly realize that you depend on you shipmates and sailing alone is neither fun or safe. You learn to value friends, and truly value the good ones because they are rare. You can’t be a good Pirate alone.
So as I embark on this journey that leads to my next decade I do it with the sails full, the sky clear and the perfect beautiful pirate wench at my side. 2019 is going to be we a hell of a year… Arrgh..