ANST - What is a Peer?

[Lady Simone]

Master Tadhg

As one who is not a peer but has walked the path towards the peerage most of
my life in the SCA, not as the end of the raad but to the beging of a new
level of service to Crown Kingdom and Populace.  Master With respect I must
say I feel you are in error.  Frankly it surprised me that a *Peer* would
adress another with such venum in a public arena. Did you think  about *What
kind of message you are sending to those of us who are not Peers* .  I
thought and I could be wrong that Peers are suposed to be examples of the
Perrage, Examples of the best in service regardless of what area they
recived their Peerage. Examples of  Honor, integrety, Chivalry , and
Civility.

Teachers who demonstrate through there words actions and deed what it means
to be a Peer. To show others that once the peerage is recived that it is not
the end of a path  but the begining of a new one. *That it is "NOT" a trophy
to be Won, or an Excuss to allow Civility, Tack and Just plain  good manners
fall to the wayside.

> Oh, please -- I didn't wear my boots today.

Master,  This was just plain wrong

 <snip>
>nobody I've
> ever met who hasn't been "recognized as a peer" (whether they are a
> Platonic peer or not ... and I've known several) believes it for a
> minute. It's just a self-esteem Consolation Prize for those who don't
> happen to win in the Race For The Dangly. Let's leave this bromide with
> Santa and the Tooth Fairy where it belongs, and talk about reality.

Now you have. I guess it was because I had a knight in my youth who stressed
that it was not the achievement of the peerage that was important. but how
you walked towards it. He stresed that The Peerage was a beging and I should
walk the path towards it irregardless if I ever became a peer or not. that
my life should encompass the Ideals of  honor integrety, chivalry, valor,
civility, and service to the best of my ability. that the more I worked and
learned the se Ideals the stonger they would become. That a true Peer is a
Peer years before they are recognized, and that some never get recognized,
that the recognition as a peer is not the goal, Living as a Peer is.

> lack of deserved recognition has lost us more "Platonic peers" than
> anyone will ever know, because when it happens it doesn't cause a horn
> to blow and a flag to go up.

Again Master I feel this is in error, There are many of us who have played
in exess of 15 years before reciving an award, yes sometime it can get you
down ontil others remind you that the award is not what is important. I've
been playing over 20 years and recived the 2 awards I have within the last 6
years and know many who are playing now who have been around along time who
still have not been recognized by one award. They and I play for one reason
we love the game we play and the people.  We do not look at awards as status
tokens or horns to be blown.

<SNIP>

> gives you a position from which one can say, "I'm a peer, and you're
> not! So nyah-nyah!" (I have seen it happen, and it's not a pretty
> sight.)

There are those who will missuse any award you give them to think they have
power and are more important, There are some who will try to abuse any
privalage that is given them. and there are those who will swollow whatever
a peer says weather it is good or bad because they are a peer or upper
nobility.
Again I could be wrong but is it not the responcibility of a peer to inform
another peer that there actions and behaviors are harmful to peerage.

I will show any peer the respect for their rank and consider what they have
to say if I like or respect the person or not. because they earned it. That
dose not mean I will apply evey opinion given. I will though be civil. there
are peers that I do not consider peers but I will still give them the
respect because of there position


> So let's not pretend that recognition doesn't matter. It does matter --
> a lot -- both in social and in practical terms.

I will admit that it is nice to be recognized for your deeds, but it should
not be the driving force behind ones actions, and deeds.  if it is for a
person It is my oppinion that there are some real self-esteem issues in that
person.


> > My best advice is not to seek to win a Peerage.  If you do whatever
> > it is
> > you do with love and with heart, and if you also embody the set of
> > diverse
> > attributes that we call "the bearing of a peer", then someone
> > eventually
> > will hang that Peerage on you.
>
> And, to anyone who believes that: I've got a great bridge to sell you.

Ok were is it and how much is it. I belive Mistress Gunnora's setiment is
Valid, it is what was taught to me and is still be told to me, are you
saying we should rewrite the Ideals of the peerage because there are those
who when they work for the perrage forget that sentiment. or because there
are those that once they recive their peerage they let it go to their head.
I am not a peer, and I belive what Mistress Gunnora has said about working
towards the peerage, it's not an end or a prize to be won.

> > Quit worrying about awards...

> Advice you'll hear only from people who already have tons of awards.
> The gullible are their natural prey.

Master, Personaly I think you have made a generisation here that is untrue I
did not het my AOA until I had played 16 years and still played the game I
love it was another 4 before I got my thistle. I may never get another and
that's OK. I've been walking toward the Peerage for 19 years and I may never
be recognized as one that's OK to. Because it is not the award that is
important. What is important is how I choose to walk that path, what actions
I take in service to  Crown , Kingdom and the populace, How I apply the
Ideals of Honor, Integrety, Chivalry,Valor, and Civility in my life and the
game we play.
I would never wish to trade the time I have had on the path towards the
peerage nor the time I will still spend walking that path for anything in
the world. It has givien me more than I could ever repay.

Lady Simone Maurian Ui' Dunlainghe


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