ANST - And once again I put on my waders

[Jerry Norris]

I sent a response to Gunnorra concerning an earlier message about the
server thing and something one of the Galens had said concerning the need
for action instead of constant argument.  

Gunnorra responded.  Her words were well chosen.  Her arguments held water
(they would have held beer, but ... why waste the beer?  It's better drunk
over a good argument).  

I sent a response to Galen.  He didn't respond.  But he's probably pretty
busy right now with 20th coming on and such.

Gunnora's busy too.  Most of us are.

What's the point?

A friend of mine (yes, I have them) once told me, "If you post it, they
will flame".  I don't believe I've ever heard truer words spoken than my
wife's "I do".  Do I believe in freedom of speech?  Yes.  Do I think
everyone has the right to express their opinion? Yes.  Do I think that they
all carry the same weight?  No.

I'm not an officer.  I haven't been one.  I may be one some day.  I'm not a
fighter, practicing to improve my skills to some day be a knight or king.
I'm a singer.  I'm a father.  I play the flute and I love my wife, my
children and my music.  Do we have a number of people who do more work than
others?  Yes.  Want proof?  Count the number of people who repeatedly work
as autocrat or cook.  Look at the people who continue to hold office.  Do
they have more time than the rest of us?  Maybe, for some, but for the rest
they simply make the time.  Are autocrat and cook and office holders the
only people who have opinions worth listening to?  No.   They're not the
only jobs that are taken up by people, either.  Most is done by simply
volunteering services or equipment, oft times both.  I don't even begin to
try to understand what sort of madness actually takes people to the rank of
King/Queen.

So is there a better/worse class of people based upon service?  I'll tend
to listen to a newcomer who hasn't seen how everything else works as much
as my baron/baroness or king/queen.  I try to pay attention to newcomers
whenever I see them.  Granted, most of them won't have the big "N" tattooed
upon their forehead so we can tell them apart from people we've never seen
from other kingdoms/baronies; still it's pretty easy to see someone who is
looking around with that glazed expression that says, "How do they expect
me to learn all this?"  It wasn't too long ago that I sat in the center of
that boat.  I still think I'm one of the oarsmen from time to time....
I'll also listen to just about anyone, but people that I know who tend to
work behind the scenes (and we all know who you are and will ask you to do
it again real soon now!) will get a leg up the ladder against the person
I've seen at many events who never seems to actually do anything but look
good in their garb and pavilion.  I try to keep in mind that I don't go to
every event everywhere, but there's still that little bit of judgment.  I'm
human.  Sometimes.

I think that throughout this whole bunch of words that Pug has remained
quite civil throughout the whole process.  He has taken advice and been
very positive about the suggestions.  When questions have been asked (and
there have been at least two) he has answered as clearly as possible.  For
this I'd like to commend him (forget the fact that he maintains these
lists.  After all, it keeps him off the streets and out of trouble ;)).  

I'd ask the rest of us to remember that _we_ are Ansteorra (Your majesties,
please note the lack of capitalization); each one of us.  We are all
neighbors.  We have a magic bulletin board that sends messages hither and
yon, through barony and shire and college and canton.  I can only hope that
words that are typed with less thought of harmony and more towards threnody
are useful as vents and those who use them can come to an understanding so
that we are all neighbors again, with cheer in our hearts towards each other.

So I've put on my asbestos booties and mittens, turned the thermostat down
a few degrees, and I'll send this out, expecting most to say, "So what?"

I just wish I could get one of these below a thousand words.


Gerald of Leesville - Barony of Stargate - Kingdom of Ansteorra	
jerryn at sprintmail.com -  Jerry Norris - Houston, Texas USA
writer, reader, thinker, father, lover. 


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