Reality (was: RE: Made to Swear Fealty)

Mitchell, Paul T MTCHPTAA at SMTPGATE.lmtas.lmco.com
Mon Jun 9 13:34:00 PDT 1997


Galen of Bristol picks on Bors again!

Baronman at aol.com wrote:
> Very well stated, but what you fail to realize is that  many people   
within
> the SCA consider it (the SCA) to be reality.  They not only have one   
foot
out
> of the stirrup but both.
>   Your thoughts???????

OK, this is one of my hot button issues.  The notion that the SCA isn't
"reality".  The hours we spend on it are real.  The money we spend on
it is real.  The way we behave in it is real behaviour.  The ideals we
try to live up to are real.  The feelings we hurt are really feelings,   
and
they're really hurt.  The good deeds we do are actually good deeds.
The people we meet in it, make friends with, marry, _give birth to_, are
real people.  The things we teach and the examples we set are real.
The enjoyment and fulfillment we realize from SCA activity is real.  Just
as much as bowling night, watching TV, going to ball games or movies,
picnics, non-SCA camping, mountain-climbing, flying, scuba-diving,
sky-diving, bridge, poker, gambling, bar-hopping and so forth are real.

People enjoy telling me that wrestling isn't real.  Indeed?  Watch it
for ten minutes.  Then you jump off the top rope, catch your opponent's
head between your knees and throw him to the mat.  Even _with_
his help.  Now get up and do it again.  That's what they _really_ do.
I know the outcome is predetermined, but that doesn't make the display
less real, only less spontaneous.  Cartoons -- they're not real.

No, I'm not really killing people, I wasn't born into a noble family, and   
I
do in fact acknowledge the authority of the U.S. Constitution.  But don't
tell me that the SCA isn't reality, because I never could have imagined
the last 18 years.  And I'm a much better man -- in any context -- for
having been a part of the SCA.

 - Galen of Bristol
Paul.T.Mitchell at lmco.com
pmitchel at flash.net
http://www.flash.net/~pmitchel/galen.htm




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