peer fear

[Burke McCrory]

At 03:25 PM 12/27/96 -0600, you wrote:
>MOHO, a lot of this boils down to appropriate timing. One gentle, in the
>attempt to rid himself of the dreaded peer fear, decides to approach the
>first brass hat, no matter what. In doing so he interrupts an important
>conversation and thereby annoys the peer. 
>Yes, this is one senario.
>I've also noticed most of these posts deal with the idea that the novice
>gentle must always be the initiator in conversation. Why can't a peer
>approach shy looking gentle with some type of compliment on their garb
>or something. Seems to me that would be the ideal SCA welcome type!
>Britta the Red
>
>

I agree that timing has a lot to do with it.  But I think that peer density
(number of peers in the area not thickness of our skulls :)  ) has just as
much impact.  When I joined there were very few peers in northern
Ansteorra, two I think (Duke John and Duchess Willow).  Duke John was also
the only fighting peer up here, so if you wanted to get any training you
went to Namron fighter practice and work with him. Usually Duchess Willow
was also at practice so you were exposed to her and before long the idea of
peer fear was not nearly so strong.  
   One other thing that impacted my early days was joining the heralds
collage.  This exposed me to a number of the southern peers in the informal
setting of heralds meetings.  This plus helping with court heralding can
break you of an peer fear very quickly.


In Service to the Dream

Sir Burke Kyriell MacDonald



mka. Burke McCrory
burkemc at ionet.net