Reality (was: RE: Made to Swear Fealty)

dennis grace amazing at mail.utexas.edu
Mon Jun 9 14:58:18 PDT 1997


Hi Galen. Aquilanne here.


>Galen of Bristol picks on Bors again!

You might have to pick on me a bit, too, since I rather initiated the
"reality" take on the fealty issue.

>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".  <snip>  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

I like to think that I'm a better person for having experienced the SCA as
well, and lord knows I agree with you on the reality of the dollars, hours,
miles, etc. invested therein. On the other hand, there are those who ascribe
more importance to the wherewithall of the SCA than is perhaps warranted.

Case in point. We once knew an individual who refused to swear fealty
because he perceived it as being in conflict with his duty of maintaining
military confidentiality. He basically said that if he swore fealty to the
crown and the king asked him to divulge secret military information that he
would be stuck in the middle of conflicting interests. Now tell me that
there isn't just a twitch of a need for reality check here?  We've also been
privy to cases where one individual had it in for another individual in some
area or another of SCA politics, and ended up doing some rather nasty things
to each other mundanely (y'know, marriages, jobs, etc.) The game we play,
seriously ideal as it may be, *does* attract some folks who, for lack of a
better or more polite way of saying it, can tend to be reality-challenged.
Though I obviously can't speak for him, I believe that's what Baron Bors was
referring to.

What might your thoughts be here?

Aquilanne




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