“You know Death will get you in the end, but if you are smart and have a sense of humor, you can thumb your nose at it for a while.” - Jimmy Buffett in his memoir, A Pirate Looks at Fifty.” 1998
Some 10 years back my boss, the owner of the company, declared a Karaoke Contest as part of the annual company Christmas party. And, every employee must participate.
It was as if you were volunteered for Pickett’s Charge. For several employees, death by cannon, bayonet, or bullet was preferable to singing in public.
My boss won the contest. His sang a pretty fair version of Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” Whether you are 30, 40, or as in the case of my boss, in your 60’s, “A Pirate Looks at Forty” resonates. At some point. we all fancy ourselves a Pirate, and like Buffett’s protagonist, we lament missed (by 200 years) opportunities and harbor regrets (where the cannons didn’t thunder).
Jimmy Buffett was the Pirate and found much to plunder. He wrote children’s books, licensed musicals, apparel, food, and liquor. He founded restaurant chains and a retirement community. He learned to fly and owned several planes. Still, he toured every year from 1974 through 2023.
After the success of his 7th album, Change in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes and the mega-hit “Margaritaville," Buffett would play my town 3 nights every year. As an angry young man with no good reason to be angry, I derided a musician whose wrote songs about cheeseburgers. Still, I went to the shows.
A few years back, after watching Simon Sinek's “Start with Why" TED talk, I asked a music venue manager what was her venues why? Without a thought she replied, "Escapism."
Damn, if that was not Buffett’s too. The combined escapism of Buffet and the venue made the cannons thunder – an intoxicating mix of artist and audience.
40+ years later, and no longer an angry young man (nor an angry on old man), I am gazing into the sunset of a life beyond what is deserved. I see Buffet in a new light, a masterful storyteller and entertainer who managed to make “Come Monday” a destination and escapism the Why.
"It's pure escapism is all it is...I'm not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it's really a part of the human condition that you've got to have some fun." - Jimmy Buffett
2nd Helping
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