[Artemisia] A closed mouth gathers no feet (was: Therasia for BoD)

[morgan wolf]

Therasia,  I must respectfully disagree with this-
 
----- Original Message ----
From: Cat Clark <cat at rocks4brains.com>
To: artemisia at lists.gallowglass.org
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 4:49:51 PM
Subject: [Artemisia] A closed mouth gathers no feet (was: Therasia for BoD)

And it's the zeitgeist that will destroy us - because the group
doesn't understand the founding vision anymore, and how can it
since it has never been consciously and explicitly enshrined. 


In 1989 I and two friends were welcomed into the home of a gentleman and lady we had never met, to stay a couple of nights for an event in Idaho Falls, based on nothing more than we needed the place to sleep, no knowledge of us whatsoever.  18 years later I thank whoever made that happen for giving me the chance to meet Basil and Renee, because he and she have both had substantially more impact upon me than they realize.

Years later I was again welcomed into a home, indeed told where the spare key was to let myself in, of people I had met once or twice in passing.  Again, I thank those powers that be that I had the chance to talk with and befriend Judith and Adne, two of the most wonderful people I have ever known.

In 1997 I was newly divorced in Salt Lake, where, I had been told, the local SCA people didn't want me around.  When a friend convinced me to go to a local fighters' practice, on the theory that perhaps I had been misinformed, the first person I  saw was then-new Baron James Ulrich MacKellar, who gave me such a warm greeting that the rest, as they say, is history.

In the past 18 years, people in the SCA have helped me out *every* time I needed it, been the friends I needed, occasionally been the kick in the ass that I needed, and in recent months have literally kept me from commiting suicide when I have been in the worst position in my life.

And, much to my shock and awe, in just the last 10 months I have become close friends with a lady who showed up to her first event in complete and correct 10th century Norse garb, and who has since told me that I embody the Dream for her.

Again I say I must respectfully disagree- if you do not believe that the Dream of Knight Errantry and Chivalric Actions and Courtly Graces is alive and well, that zeitgeist of which you speak, then you need to come spend an event with me, so that I can show it to you.  It's right here, every day, all over Artemisia, and for my money it grows stronger every day as well.  If you doubt it, look at what furor erupts over the use of language, and the oft-cited example of what happens when "the Man" tries to tell us not to use the word boffer, because some "stiffs" *might* be offended.  Look at a group of 20+children, all armed and armored in matching blue-plastic Youth Combat armor, fighting as a true melee unit, gleefully answering to the name Pictsie Horde, not because they think we're saying "pixie", but because, *at 10 years old*, they have learned enough history to know who the Picts were, and why the reference is funny.  I am awash in the Dream every
 day of my life, thanks to people like Padruig, and Ellisif, and Niccolo, and a list that goes on for miles.  Let's face it, I work for the Corporate Regional Administration Office, (known to some as the Seneschallate), and have to see those niggling real-world problems that weigh down that Dream all the time, but still, I see that Dream every day.

In this case, Therasia, you are wrong, and I cannot be happier to say so.

Morgan Blaidd Du,
mka Morgan Wolf
Damn Vicar Archery and Stuff
www.damnvicar.com
damnvicar at yahoo.com


       
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