X Marks the Spot


You know, for having such a bleak outlook on pirates you are well on your way to becoming one: sprung a man from jail, commandeered a ship of the fleet, sailed with a buccaneer crew out of Tortuga, and you're completely obsessed with treasure. -Jack Sparrow

Why is it that we are so obsessed with treasure ... are we really all pirates at heart? (Although I do say traditional piracy has gotten far less glamorous ... more on that later) I watched all of the original Indiana Jones movies the other day in preparation for the fourth coming out. Very excited about the fourth. And it dawned on me that it is exactly the same story as National Treasure. Granted National Treasure figured that if they had a history professor who was able to handle a whip with uncanny precision and be a crack shot, the snobbish critics would cry "that could never happen!" My response (and why I'm so excited about Indiana Jones) is "of course it could never happen ... thats why we put it IN A MOVIE." I swear people, have some suspended disbelief sometimes. So I am glad we get both sides of the coin. But I am digressing from the point at hand. Why is it that we love people who find treasure. I honestly dont know ... maybe their struggles are just a simplified version of our own. Possibly we would rather someone handed us a map and told us where to look for happiness. And we wish there could be spinning blades of death standing in our way instead of a deceptive relationship or a distracting hobby. And I suppose as Mr. Loman found out in "Death of a Salesman," in life, sometimes we confuse seeking with finding ... and is their anything that says that we will ever find anything. I fear this line of thinking will send us down a rabbit hole so I will stop there for today.

Just remember:
Will Turner: That's not true. I am not obsessed with treasure.
Jack Sparrow: Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.

0 comments: