[Artemisia] thought for discussion-

[LadyPDC at aol.com]

Just had to add my wee bit to the discussion.

Though it was brought up as a sort of a sideline to one of the comments, I 
believe that the definition of prowess as being a comparison to yourself and 
your abilities to be a most important delineation.  

An example is often worth more than much discourse.

There reside within my local area several people who have an abiding interest 
in the art of recreating medieval foodstuffs.  Several of those have degrees 
in that area and several more work with food preparation on a daily basis.  
Some of us have had some training in food preparation and even more training in 
that area that many people fear known as documentation.  There are even a few 
like myself who love to explore medieval recipes but must rely on others for 
the tasting of same because our health won't allow us to eat the food we 
prepare.  And then there is one in particular who loves this area perhaps even more 
than the rest of us but who labors under a .... well, to put it politely, 
..... lack in the mental areas.

It would be easy to say that the person who works as a chef every day and who 
has a degree in historical research and who manages to produces a feast the 
likes of which we have rarely seen, is recognizable as showing the virtue of 
prowess in this area.

It may be less easy to see, and yet therefore much more important that we 
take the time to observe, that the person mentioned lastly two paragraphs above 
who submits a correctly prepared soup with two paragraphs of correct 
documentation at a competition (where before he had submitted a modern soup and an index 
card with his name) is showing much more prowess.

Why?  Because that second person worked to improve himself in his area and 
showed a more marked improvement.

That, to me, is true prowess.  To improve against yourself.  Not in 
comparison to anyone else.  But against yourself and to stretch your own abilities to 
their fullest.  For that is the true test.  The test of yourself and your 
abilities.

OK, I am philosophizing so I must be overly tired.  Time to crawl off to bed.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussions.



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

"Never say a thing's impossible,
For chances are you'll rue it.
Because some fool who doesn't know,
Will come along and do it."
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