I be very disappointed.

Going to take assembly at a local secondary school this morning, I was told that a fortnight ago the speaker had talked about International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Arrh, there does indeed be such a day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day.

It was September 19^th and I had completely forgotten that it was taking place

I like International Talk Like a Pirate Day, partly because coming from Somerset, talking like a fictional pirate isn’t hard. Our dialect lengthens the letter ‘r’ and the verb ‘to be’ gets rendered: I be, you be, he be, and so on. I grew up familiar with baint as the local word for I am not – I assume it came from I be not. In Somerset you could sound like pirates while talking with your neighbour about the weather.

Partly, I like International Talk Like a Pirate Day because it is a parody.

Parodies help us look at ourselves help us think about what is real and worthwhile and what is dross.

There are serious days in the calendar, I reflect seriously on World Aids Day on 1^st December and during Christian Aid Week during May, but there is a whole lot of other stuff out there that shouldn’t receive attention. There are the politically correct people with their international days of this and that, (what about an International Day of Solidarity with Nice Little Girls from Surrey Who Would Like a Pony?), and there are the transatlantic hypesters who try and tell us that the days of the Superbowl and the Oscars are somehow significant. Who remembers who won? Who even cares?

I really don’t think Jesus would have taken much notice of the spin and the self-projection that fill our television screens. He guarded against the zealots who tried forcing their own agenda upon him and he debunked those who were pompous about themselves. Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’ says Jesus – I think he would have enjoyed talking like a pirate