[Artemisia] Re:Court is NOT period + another rant (annoyingly long) ; >

[Femmehippiegirl at aol.com]

<big grin>  hee...hee...hee...oh, how i do love candid, sleepy, non-caffienated opinions!  makes me feel like i'm in good company.  plus if anyone else is asleep i can slip this in and get away fast before the yelling starts.  ;>

why apologize for saying what you were thinking?  your opinion is valid and not badly put.  while my own experience was brief...and the significance of it in the scheme of things minor...it's not any more entertaining for those royalty worth their weight to know that the conversation taking place in front of them is either boring or annoying the populace.  the point of being royalty IMHO is to make things interesting FOR EVERYONE ELSE!  you don't get to really "BE" royalty unless someone else is interested in supporting your undertaking.  we're here to recreate something for pete sake...let's recreate well at least!  how can anyone wear a crown/coronet and not want to make things interesting for others?  it's only through being of service to others that being royalty (or a peer for that matter) means anything.  i'm not trying to diminish the efforts made by skilled  and talented fighters/artisans/servants. we all compete with ourselves to engender that sense of satisfaction in a task well done obviously.  but if we're not here to help, teach, learn, recreate and to have fun in the undertaking then what the bloody "heck" are we doing????

so...here's the other rant..uhm, i mean "observation"...

can we talk about how events have changed? it seems to me that we're spending a lot of time and effort to dress up in our lovely clothing....solely to have dinner together.  i've noticed this in 2 kingdoms and heard about it in 3 others.  and to be honest...if i were a feast steward i'd be pretty bummed out if i worked my....uhm..."patootie" off in the kitchen to make some yummy period food and found out later that the only fun being had before eating was some hot speculation on whether dinner was going to be on time or not.

time demands and cost may change how we undertake to design/attend events...but i can't help but notice that more often than not events with tourneys provide no activities for non-fighters...that we forget to acknowledge the finer points of courtesy and do not even bow or speak gently to one another unless that "other" is reigning royalty and often not even then do we leave our chairs or acknowledge "presence" when it appears before us...only a handful of people notice someone with a burden and take part of it for them...i see more coolers/popcans/cd players/backpacks/lawn chairs/etc. at events than i see efforts to cover them up...we congregate in small groups of those we're most familiar with and play our own game rather than moving out of the comfort zone and into the newbie zone to welcome, teach, assist and so on...and when help is requested in the kitchen or during clean up the battle cry is "why am i the ONLY one who will do this?" or "i helped last time".  

well so what?

i know many of us are tired of working our butts off at events...but whose responsibility is that?  if we work ourselves to death in the kitchen or at a tourney 3 events in a row who's to blame when we aren't enjoying ourselves? 

if newcomers are dressed in orange and green spandex neon leopard print fur trimmed surcotess with outer bag pockets that seal with velcro over their nike logo sweats accompanied by tennis shoes, white belt and spurs and content to drink mead from green plastic 7-11 mugs who's to blame?  (i made myself nauseous just writing that!)

if we're members of the "core" in our group and we think "why won't anyone else do some of this work?" maybe it's because they haven't been shown HOW they can help (and believe it or not baby boomers...unlike those of us suffering under the extreme early childhood lesson of methodist/catholic/jewish work ethics, some people have to be shown not only HOW to help but reassured that they're not expected to commit 12 hours but maybe only 30 to 60 minutes).  a lot of people find that they work hard during the week and therefore they have to play hard on the weekend.  they don't want to spend a lot of time setting up the hall or doing dishes.  as event and feast stewards we indenture ourselves willingly (or we wouldn't be volunteering...right?)  but just because a group used to have 50 events a year in every shire (!) doesn't mean that it has to remain that way.  the entire sca won't fold if we conserve energy and host 1 to 3 events per year that are well organized and well attended therefore. and it eliminates the fierce competition for time and money...two hard won commodities.

before anyone yells...i'm willing to take the heat for expressing the opinion if it's unpalatable...but i know i'm not alone in seeing this particular change.   i also know that being part of the solution is easy.  so please don't take it personally.  if you haven't experienced this phenomenon yet let me assure you it's happening elsewhere.  so now's the best time to decide how to stop it before it gets to you.  and if you have seen this happening dust off the keyboard and speak up.  as amusing as it would be to leave me hanging with my pelican hanging out...it's worth talking candidly about if we really want to continue to attract new players and teach them to be as good as those who inspired us.  (after all...who would have been inspired by a royal peer drinking out of a travel mug and wearing a warm up suit with his/her crown?)  i remember who inspired me the most when I was new to the game and even when I wasn't: Sir Alan Youngforest,  Baron Einendoch, Their Excellencies Basil and Renee, Mistress Morgan, Viscountess Zahara, Mistress Maire, Lord Padraig, Mistress Courtney, Sir Aylwin, Duchess Sarah...i still hate to think of any of them catching me with my cooler exposed and i didn't even know some of them very well!  (heck i remember being embarassed because my own baroness caught me without appropriate gear at an event and she was pretty easy going!)

i think the peers should challenge one another to solve this problem.  who better to set an example for others?  isn't that what peers are supposed to have done anyway?  it didn't stop the moment someone grants you the right to be "Sir Terribly Important Fighter" /"Master Does All the Work" / "Mistress Awfully Good At Every Art Under the Sun...right?  as a matter of fact...isn't peerage is an acknowledgement of your particular wonderfulness and doesn't the person conveying that award have the right to require you to inspire further?  (cool!  poetry!  "require to inspire")  

so...let's get off our peerages and bow to one another.  hat or no hat.  and let's cover up or coolers and the coolers of others.  i recognize that setting up/taking down encampments and readying for/packing up from tournaments and competitions must be exempt from a ban on the mundane...but there's no reason to sit near the eric all day long surrounded by mundanity...it takes so little to cover stuff up with an old table cloth...it's like fake making the bed when you were 15...ignore what's underneath and throw a blanket over it...how hard can it be?  no one has to go to an expense that is outside their ability ever.  but hiding the modern isn't difficult if you have a blanket.  why should anyone else do it if we don't?

as for volunteering at events...what's to stop the highest ranking royal or the first peer on site from starting a volunteer list with the help of the event steward and making sure that every able bodied peer with 2 brain cells to rub together is on it?  i once saw a queen washing dishes during feast prep...of course it took a lot of work on her part before anyone would let her in the kitchen...but hey...she's the queen right?  who's gonna say "get outta here!" to her?  eventually, every knight in a 4 mile radius was in the kitchen washing dishes so she wouldn't.  (you should have seen what happened when she tried to take the garbage out!)  the key to enjoying yourself and working at an event is only volunteering once or twice, only working an hour (or so) at a time and never volunteer to do what you really don't want to do.  so, no one really WANTS to clean the garbage disposal...but if you honestly don't mind helping in the kitchen, then don't volunteer to set up the eric and organize the water bearers.  those of us who don't care what we do can fill in wherever.  and it's good to remember that if someone is teaching dance, running a heraldic consultation table, marshalling, organizing a laurel's prize tourney, etc...that they're already volunteering.  but it doesn't preclude them from doing something else if they wish.

and who greets the newcomers?  who answers their questions and directs them to sources of information?  yes, the chatellaine and the senschal are great choices...but what if there are 10 newcomers?  or (cross your fingers) 50 of them?  and who keeps track of them at their 2nd or 3rd event?  who makes sure they don't fall through the cracks into spandex-garb/white belt and spurs isolation?  peer-adoption programs...that's who.  

well i re-read the damn thing twice...took out all the swearing and even chuckled a couple of times 'cuz i crack me up!  so let the b*tching commence.  i can take it.  i'm used to being the bad guy.  but even if i didn't say it well i still have a point.  we're getting sloppy.  i don't exempt myself from the accusation.  but we can get bettah!

ramona




Naquiba Raym bint Qasim al-Andalusi
Once and Future Geek