ANST - Belts and their meanings

[ALBAN at delphi.com]

Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace
>As I've noted in response to others on the SCA armored combat list, I see 
>no reason to become a squire/apprentice/protege' unless you wish to 
>strive for recognition as a peer. 
I didn't. Mind you, I have a generic wish to be recognized as a peer, some 
day - but that has absolutely nothing to do with why I became the vassal of 
my Laurel. I did homage and swore fealty to her, and she accepted them, 
because it was a wonderful way of strengthening our ties to each other. 
Our fealty ties were done to bind us into "more than friends, less than 
marriage" (as her husband puts it), and are not related to my peer 
potentials.
Some of us want that association because we're good friends, and others 
for the good education it may bring; nothing more, nothing less.

Sir Lyonel quoted Daniel, I believe it was, as saying
>1) we didn't color-code by belts, restricting colors to various extents
>2) it wasn't so restricted to squires
>3) that squiredom wasn't restricted to "knight wannabe" 
>4) that people used more documentable means -- the example 
>	given of a knight giving his badge is *lovely*
As for 1 and 2: Not that I'm a squire, or ever want to be (me being a very 
definite no-way no-how not-in-this-lifetime non-fighter), but color-coding 
is, yup, not always a good thing. There's so much nice garb where a red, or 
yellow, or green, or even (gasp!) white belt would be the perfect accessory; 
and it would be nice to wear such things without having every peer with a 
swelled head - or squire/protege/apprentice/newbie/fill-in-the-blank - 
tell the wearer he/she's Offending The Very Structure of the Universe. (In 
my early days, when I wore a monk's habit, I wore a hemp-colored rope 
tied around my middle, as a belt. Hemp-colored is a vaguely pale 
yellowish color. People complained that I shouldn't be wearing it, because 
"only knights wear white belts." They knew I wasn't a fighter; they knew 
monks wore something like rope that color; they still complained. Give me 
a break.)
As for 3: so, what should happen to someone who likes a particular 
member of the Chivalry, but is clumsy? Or simply wants to honor that m-
o-t-C with personal service without wanting to go through fighting 
practice? Squiredom/association/protegeship should cover more bases 
than just peer wannabes.
As for 4: there's a good word for this. It's called a "favor". I don't wear a 
green belt from my Laurel (not that she'd give me one, and not that I 
would if she did, since  both of us know that green looks hideous with 
every piece of garb I own). What I do wear now is an amber necklace from 
her; a number of people have come up to admire it, and asked where I got 
it, so it serves as effectively as a symbol of my fealty to her as her badge on 
a belt would. (And when it arrives, I'll be wearing an embroidered favor as 
well; she's an embroidery-plus-stuff Laurel, and some things just take more 
time <grin>.)

Alban, Standing Stones, Calontir
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