Are We Crazy??

[Lori Jones]

>         Why these folks don't understand it is that, for them, the church,
> or their work, or Little League etc. make up their social interaction group.
> Most big churches offer, in addition to the regular church worship services,
> social activities such as (depending on the church) bingo, dances, ice cream
> socials, men's retreats, women's retreats, summer camps for kids and
> sometimes adults, sports, including baseball/softball teams, basketball
> teams (many churches own their own playing fields, courts, etc. One church I
> know of has a bowling alley in the basement). There are church dinners,
> church arts and crafts, choir singing, etc. etc. etc.
> 
>         Many large companies likewise offer a comprehensive social
> interaction group.  they have the same types of sports teams, offer banquets
> and picnics from time to time, offer employees special tickets to plays and
> movies, etc.
> 
>         So, for those who are really involved with church or their work as
> their primary social groups, those activities make up their whole life. They
> have no way to fit in anything extra, like the SCA.  It makes it hard for
> them to see that the SCA offers all the same sorts of activities, plus the
> added bonus of a little healthy escapism.  Pretty much all they see is the
> costumes, and cannot look beyond what is, for them, an impossibly silly
> notion of grownups playing dressup.  Never mind that church goers regularly
> invest lots of cash in costumes that they wear only to church on Sundays
> (the see and be seen in clothes).
> 
>         Mari and I have had long discussions concerning how, for some folks,
> the SCA functions as though it were a religion.  Not because we worship the
> king (ha, as if) or any such thing, but because it provides all the social
> and emotional types of outlets that church does... including the feeling of
> awe or numinous presence on those rare occasions you go to a special event
> and get that "YOU ARE THERE" feeling of "it's REAL".
> 
>         I wouldn't waste any time getting mad about your neighbors' and
> friends' bad attitudes.  After all, if they were actually your friends
> they'd be supportive of your happiness.  And who gives a flip about what Joe
> Blow Who You Do Not Know thinks?  I worry about what my SCA friends will
> think of what I do; very rarely I worry about what my family will think.
> The rest of the world can think what it will, because I am, first and
> foremost, a medieval recreationist!  Capture your joy where you can find it,
> and leave others to drag their selves through the muck by worrying about
> what you do instead of searching for their own happiness.
> 
>         And, in the last resort, there's always that quote about getting the
> log out of your own eye before worrying about the mote in mine.
> 
> Wassail,
> ::GUNNORA::
> 
> Gunnora Hallakarva
> Herskerinde
> ======================================
> Ek eigi visa (th)ik hversu o(dh)lask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna
> heldr hversu na Hersis-A(dh)al
> 
>