ANST - What is a Peer?

[C. L. Ward]

Master Petruccio said (among other good words):
>The final line for me is this:
>   If they look like a Peer, If they act like a Peer, If they do whatever
>      they do like a Peer, They are a Peer.  It doesn't matter if they
>      are a Painter, an Archer, a Rapier Fighter, or a Steward.

I'd like to add and elaborate here.   If they look like a Peer, If they act
like a Peer, If they do whatever  they do like a Peer, They are a Peer,
*whether or not the Crown EVER recognizes them for it*!!

What makes having *any* award in the SCA worthwhile is *NOT* the award
itself.  It is the simple fact that people thought what you were doing was
cool enough, or important enough, that *they* believe you should have the
award.  If the Crown agrees or disagrees, you still have the respect and
regard of the people around you.

I've seen lots of people make the enormous error of thinking that having a
Peerage of any flavor would *GIVE* them instant respect.  It's not so.  If
you are not respected before you get the award, you will have no more
respect afterwards.  The only thing you do get is an enormous set of
expectations that others then expect you to live up to... and even less
respect if you don't.

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.

What is *much* better, and what I advise everyone to do, is to do your best
to live as a Lion of Ansteorra.  The Lion carries no precedence, not even
as much as an AoA.  Yet is is our most prestigious award.  Why?  Partly
because they are rare -- the Crown may only make a single Lion per reign.
But more importantly, Lions have prestige and our admiration because they
make this game we play seem real.  Like any award, a Crown can give a Lion
to an undeserving person... but when you ask a member of the populace to
name all the Lions they can think of, the ones who are named first and most
consistently are those whose personas were so real and so golden that they
made us each believe, just for a moment.

The other hallmark of the Lions is that they don't try to "win" the award.
They're preoccupied with having fun and playing the game as well as they
can, by presenting the most medieval persona they can, and in so doing so
they make it easier for everyone around them to believe.  

Quit worrying about awards...  worry about having fun, interacting with
your friends, singing around the campfires, witnessing and performing
valorous deeds of arms.  You'll find in the end its ever much so more
rewarding than having a piece of parchment on your wall.

::GUNNORA::


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