Give The Pirates What They Want?

May I please take over your city. May I please steal all of your money. Hide yo kids, hide yo wives...please!

Now, many people know about the 120% true story of the fearless pirate. However, what you don't know is that pirates saved the world, which was scheduled to end by being sucked into a black hole created by all the pirates being in close proximity to one another, and having too much awesome power in one place at one time! Do you remember the movie with Jet Li being ten ten times better than everyone, and also ten times faster than the human eye can perceive? If you can, you've watched a lot of Jet Li movies, and that has nothing to do with pirates. Unless you pirate his movies...then Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Terry Crews, and one guy you can't ever understand will come get you! They don't care, they're expendable.

Back to the story at hand; there was one such pirate who existed so well, he apparently didn't exist at all. If you've been to Tampa at the end of January, you might have heard of Gasparilla. The theme and focal point of Gasparilla is a friendly "invasion" by mythical pirate José Gaspar and his crew. See? He's mythical! So mythical in fact, that hundreds of years later he has planted his existence into the very hearts and souls of people everywhere. Or did he? (dun dun dun)

José Gaspar, the legend in question, was a Spanish naval officer who turned to a life of piracy. Different legends say that he was either a nobleman and adviser to King Charles III of Spain who was exiled after a romantic scandal in the Spanish court or an ambitious young officer in the Spanish navy who was driven to mutiny by a tyrannically cruel captain. Whatever his reasons, the stories agree that Gaspar stole away in the late 1700s to the virtually uninhabited southwestern coast of Spanish Florida and established a secret base at Charlotte Harbor.

Gaspar is said to have plundered many ships and taken many female hostages in almost four decades of roaming from Louisiana to the Spanish main aboard his stolen flagship, the Floridablanca. His exploits came to a sudden end in 1821 when, to avoid being captured by the schooner USS Enterprise, he wrapped himself in the ship's anchor chains and threw himself overboard while shouting ""Gasparilla dies by his own hand, not the enemy's!" Joe Gaspar just sort of took his boat and crew, and ran into the Tampa shore, held up the government, took the keys to the city, made a secret base, terrorized everyone and became something of a hero, because he was friendly about it, possibly, maybe, hopefully! So last weekend, I learned something: friendship is the second fastest way to a person's heart.

As it turns out, the fastest way to a person's heart is by ripping a hole throught their chest with your bare hands.

But even more interesting is the fact that this festival has been going strong since 1904! That's before I was born! GASParilla! *drumroll* But for 112 years, everyone has been coming together, even people from different states, backgrounds, etc. in honor of the man who never was. And that's a lesson we can all pick up on. Community. Community is always going to be crazy, hard, and not what you would expect - in this case being a pirate crew that brought a city together. If you want to make community work, find your pirate crew!No matter where you come from, what you do, how you grew up,what language you speak, you'll find people with things in common. So often we try to find out what's wrong with people, or "why aren't they like me?" and the weekend of Gasparilla was refreshing, because it was exactly the opposite. Old people, young people, unborn people, 420YOLOSWAG guys and girls, and of course pirates, were all lined up, taking pictures, catching beads; everyone and everything was represented (unlike the Oscars) and THEY GOT ALONG! One pirate burned into the spirit of the people has brought together lots of people who understand we are amazing when we get along and take interst in one another, creating community. I know another group of pirates who have a lot of heart and are willing to step into community, even if it means risking their lives for others.

Sorry Jose, Monkey D. Luffy is the best pirate captain ever

It's a shame that the only way a show detailing government corruption, corrupt leaders, businesses, slavery, human traffiking, war, poverty, freedom, drugs, the value of human life, religion, politics, and the list goes on, can be brought into scene is through a cartoon medium. The Strawhat Pirates, much like Jose Gaspar, are the friendly pirates who go around making community better every place they pass through. If you ever feel the urge to watch ONE PIECE, I highly recommend it! And that's the way community should be. The difficulties of us being human can all be worked through, if we truly believe it's worth it. You can't fake your way through community, you can't talk your way through community, you can't cry about your community not being the way you want it to be. You must LIVE through community! And if you want it to be better, stop looking at other people to do it for you. Sometimes you have to let people do them, and make room for them in your community. We wouldn't have Gasparilla if the community never let a real-fake pirate ninja manipulate them. However, you and I, my friend, are not that pirate-ninja, and so we must create community manually, by going after peoples' hearts.

Are we willing to stop complaining about everything, work harder, be more peaceful, be more loud and crazy, stop worrying so much, be nicer, bolder, smoother(?), more accepting of people who aren't like us? Whatever you have to do to create community, try it, because community is worth it all. You can't put a price on people having your back, or your best interests at heart, and helping you achieve your goals while you do the same for them. So be the friendly pirates. Realize that you're just passing through, whether it be this life, the town you live in, the stage of life you're in, embrace it for what it is, and make it better in the way that you are able to. Other people will be right there behind you, because after all, you're not alone. There's 7 billion people in this world, so there's bound to be quite a few people who share the same dream as you. We should all take a page from Jose Gaspar, maybe not the whole the anchor death thing, but not letting our spirits die because of others. Instead, we should let our spirits live by touching the hearts of others and creating community.

What are you willing to do for community?

Here are some awesome pictures of the Gasparilla Parade!