ANST - Striving for peerages and awards (lots)

[Dennis Grace]

Salut Cozyns,

Lyonel aisai.

Centurion Timotheus responded to the "Awards" thread (in part) with 
<avec snippage>:

>Now, what is the difference between...
>
>Lord X.... who serves 
>
>Squire Y, who does the fighting stuff where everyone sees him....
>
>Lady Z, who  generally does the artsy stuff where
>everyone can see her......
>
>The only thing I can think of is that people don't like the "Lord X"s 
because
>they perceive them as buttkissers, while the others are on more 
accepted
>paths to peerage.
>
> I mean, I'm striving for an award, a Knighthood. I'm even striving for 
the
>Crown. Heck, I'll enter the Southern regional Coronet list (see, I said 
it
>;) 

<more snips>

>If that's not obviously  "Going" for an award then I don't know what 
is...

I'm glad you brought this up Timotheus.  It allows me to discuss two 
related topics that tend to make folks squirm (which is always 
entertaining, at least).  

First, the matter of what we mean by awards vice what we mean by 
"peerage."  Periodically someone has to explain that a peerage is not an 
award--it's a recognition.  I guess it's my turn. If you're recognized 
as a knight, Laurel, or Pelican, it's because the members of that 
particular circle believed you belonged among their numbers.  That's why 
the most honest answer to the squire who asks, "What do I have to do to 
be knighted," is, "Be a knight."  The same is true for the Laurels and 
Pelicans.  Now in truth this is not a simple thing to accomplish. It 
isn't a matter of a certain set of tasks you need to perform or of a few 
behaviors you need to ape or even a specific ranking you need to 
achieve.  Peerage is as much attitude as it is accomplishment.

An award is something you receive for what you've done.  A peerage is 
something you receive for what you've become.

Now, that all said, I don't want anyone to think I'm writing just to 
disagree with Timo.  I think he makes a valid point about the different 
perceptions of fighting, arts, and service awards *and* recognitions.  
I, too, have seen this syndrome at work in both matters of awards and 
peerages.  Squires are often expected to openly acknowledge that they 
are striving toward knighthood (my knight would not accept me as a 
squire until I was willing to state openly that such was my goal, which 
made me very uncomfortable at the time), yet I've heard Laurels and 
Pelicans refuse to take on apprentices and proteges who were "only 
interested in a peerage."

Actually, I think this problem has lessened for apprentices over the 
last few years.  More and more of them seem to be openly claiming the 
Laurelate as their goal.  For proteges, however,...well, if you admit 
you want to be a Pelican, some folks will just look at you like you've 
gone funny in the head.  I've heard the statement,"He wants to be a 
Pelican--bless his heart," uttered in a tone very much like one of my 
backwoods, Kentucky relatives saying, "He doesn't have the brains god 
gave a junebug--bless his heart."

One explanation for this syndrome is undoubtedly the glamour of 
knighthood.  Knighthood is, after all, the ideal for both the pragmatic 
and the romantic re-creationist.  Whether you're striving to be more 
like William Marshal or Lancelot du Lac, the goal is still to be more 
chivalrous.  The Laurels and Pelicans simply don't have that attendant 
glamour.

What seems odd to me in all this is that this same stigma seems to 
extend to the associated awards.  

I've received a few awards from different groups over the years, and 
while they were all very nice, I only really strove for one of them.  
The kingdom of Atenveldt has a fighting award called the Order of the 
Hawk's Lure: a thick blue, white, and gold braid on a brass ring that 
ends in a wooden ball holding a spray of white feathers.  It looks 
sharp.  The first time I saw one, I knew I wanted one.  (O Gods, this is 
beginning to sound like a confession from Award-Getters Anonymous.)  
Since this award was given primarily for training fighters, I worked 
very hard at training newer fighters.

After I received my Hawk's Lure, whenever anyone commented on it (there 
weren't a dozen in the kingdom at the time--the award had only been 
around for a few years) I admitted with pride that it was the only award 
I'd actually wanted enough to work for it.  No one ever expressed any 
distaste or discomfort with my having wanted the award.  Nor did I see 
anyone complain when other fighters admitted having striven for their 
Hawk's Lures.  Nor have I heard anyone complain about the fighters who 
strive after the Centurion's cloak.

I think that, rather than the glamour of knighthood, our general 
acceptance of striving after martial awards is simply a recognition that 
martial arts have clear competitive and hierarchical aspects. So 
striving after awards is just proof that you're a serious student of the 
martial arts.

But admit that you'd really like to have an Iris of merit, and you're a 
phony. A real artist would work %qua art%. Admit that you want a Star of 
merit, you're a buttkisser.  A truly deserving citizen would work for 
the sheer joy of altruism.

Puh-leaze.

I can understand the concerns:

*If someone does a job *only* because she thinks it will get her an 
award, she's likely to stop after she gets the award.  

*If her only motivation is a trinket or a title, she might not have 
sufficient motivation to do the job well and thoroughly.  

*And finally, the big nasty unspoken fear:  one of these Cookie Monsters 
might be *gasp* recognized as a peer.  

Well, I think I can answer all of those objections.  First, I know very 
few whose *sole* motivation is an award.  Second, if the Cookie Monster 
in question goes away after getting her award, who cares?  The work got 
done, and a shallow individual left.  Where's the loss?  Third, if she 
does a poor job, *don't reward her.*

But what about that peerage thing?  Generally speaking, I think we do a 
decent job of keeping undesirables out of the peerage circles.  I 
believe our butthead-to-true-peers ratio is fairly low (realizing, of 
course, that if I'm one of the buttheads, my perception here is probably 
a bit skewed).  True, some do slip by us, but not by virtue of their 
awards. I can't remember *ever* hearing, "But, we have to make him a 
Pelican.  He's got all the service awards, and he keeps working."  A fly 
on the wall in a Pelican circle is more likely to hear, "I don't think 
he's properly motivated.  He's always bragging about his awards, and I 
don't think he'd scratch his own butt if he didn't think there was a 
service award in it."

All in all, though, the awards are intended as motivation.  If our own 
officers and royalty are going to refuse to award deserving folk because 
those folk don't appear to have the right kind of motivation, then no 
one will ever receive the damned things.  Erik was right:  we design 
these awards to be attractive, we exalt their recipients, we vivat them 
in court, but we expect folks to not want them?  

I can just see it:  "This is the Star of Merit.  This award confers a 
Grant of Arms, and the recipient is allowed to wear a spiffy-looking 
garter.  The Star of Merit is awarded for overwhelming service to the 
kingdom of Ansteorra by people who don't want the award."

Wouldn't that look smart on our www welcome pages?



______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.