
Hard to know what to share
with our children these days, especially when to children the news
sounds like play. Or, is it the other way around? Navy seals have won the day. Trial awaits the pirates, boys and men.
Ironically, piracy, as a theme for children, has been hugely in vogue for birthday
parties, Halloween costume, and storytelling. Magazines like
Real Simple and
Cookie run an articles for a
pirate-themed party replete with fish
and chips. And the high-end catalog, "Chasing Fireflies" offers both
peace sign attire and pirate
costumes for dress-up play and alternative
fashion statements.
Why the popular return of pirates?
Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly and Johnny Depp in
Pirates of the Caribbean
rule Disney and might have something to do with it. But why? These
movies could have have flopped like Brad Pitt's Achilles in
Troy. Why do
some myths ignite our culture and others
fizzle?On
the face of it, pirates seem to represent represent greed, aggression,
and lack of impulse control. They they live outside the law. Are they
symbols of the greed that has caused our economies to collapse? Maybe
so. Pirates capture so many parts of our imagination.
Greed can
be its own undoing. Children understand this early. We have to conquer
our selfishness our we won't have friends. If two children rip at a toy
in a tug of war, play is over. Resources are limited. Sharing begins.
Pirates
are also knuckle-headed—they provide comic relief in the land of the
"all-bad." Pirates are antiheroes, the Sancho Panza, the court jester
who is not truly evil—maybe even good at heart, like the Pirates of
Penzance, who would never harm an orphan. Unlike the monsters spawned
from imagination
who live under the bed or in nightmares,
children enjoy pirates. Pirates can be conquered. Pirates can be
tricked. As a recent children' book extolling the virtues of parents
explains "pirates are fools for gold." Pirates teach us that greed can
be recognized. Children's pirates are ugly. They don't look like us.
They stand out the way a giant does and we recognize them from the
knives between their teeth, their tall back boots, and their trusty
parrots.
Pirates can represent the part of the child that is at war with
civilization—the self that wants things and the self that needs people.
Pirates also represent the power of the outsider. Girls may adore these
movies because girls often live in their imagination without real role
models to follow. Much more fun to be a pirate, one might think, than
Amelia Bedelia or Ramona the Pest! Girls, in their minds, can 'sail
the seven seas' and explore new worlds. How else to explain the
incredible popularity of Dora, the formulaic cartoon explorer, who
conquers Swiper and new territory daily with only a map, a backpack,
and her own pluck.
As I heard from mothers in recent weeks, some
chose to tell their children about the real pirates. They followed the
capture of the ship and the triumphant rescue. Children feel safe when
they see the President make wise choices. But they may also feel
confused as they love their own excited play.
Children are not
the only ones who find that the rules of life are not always fair.
Perhaps it is time for Robin Hood, the 'good pirate' to return....
Photo credit: cproppe, Creative Commons