[Artemisia] SCA Court is NOT period (medium)

[LadyPDC at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/9/2004 9:28:28 AM Mountain Standard Time, 
damethaya at yahoo.com writes:
Dear Cousins, 

Kindly read all of what I have written here, as I would welcome discussion.  
I had also been staying off of this topic, but here I go as this has really 
been bothering me for some time now ……  Court as currently practiced in the SCA 
is NOT period.
Dame Rachel,

Thankyou for taking the time to say so much better than I what I had been 
feeling.  It has always disappointed me that so little thanks and so few names 
are printed in our newsletters.  I know that space is also short there but it is 
permanent and noticed by more people than are either present or able to pay 
attention at a court.  Even when I am present in court it is difficult to 
remember all who are named, much less who received thanks rather than awards.

Perhaps if more were named in newsletters for their contributions, our 
royalty and ranking nobility would have less trouble tracking who was worthy of the 
notice which our awards structure was developed to recognize as well.

And your suggestion of "on the spot" notice is especially pertinent in the 
case of the younger members of our kingdom.  A child does not have a long 
memory, nor are they overly impressed to be called into a formal court two days 
after whatever they did (at a longer event) just to be thanked.  I well remember a 
seven year old girl a few years ago who was helping a merchant whose 
merchandise was spilled to the ground pick it up and replace it.  The current queen 
was passing by and notice this act of kindness.  She stopped her retinue, asked 
the girl her name, thanked her for such an act of courtesy, and pulled a ring 
from her finger to give to the young lady.  Then continued on her way.  The 
young girl was called into court much later to receive public thanks but that 
meant far less to her than the ring she still wears on a silver chain with her 
garb and the determination to someday be "that kind of a queen".  That, to me, 
will always be a memory of the way nobility should give awards and (as the 
little girl said far better than I) the kind of person our queens should be.

Personally, I would far rather see a number of those sorts of informal 
awarding "courts" than to ever again sit through a 6 hour court comprised of 30+ AOA 
awards follow by steadily higher awardings.  To me, such a court actually 
detracts from the higher (even peerage) awards that we should be celebrating.  
(not to mention all of the sore backsides people end up complaining about 
afterwards) <g>



Lady Constance de la Rose
Barony of Loch Salann
Kingdom of Artemisia