[Ansteorra] Awards and such.
Marc Carlson
marccarlson20 at hotmail.com
Sun Sep 24 13:33:53 PDT 2006
Ive been giving this thread some serious though, and so may ramble on here
for a while. Pay me no never mind.
Ive been somewhat silent since I dont do the SCA for awards. In fact for
a long time actively fought getting them at all since in many ways they can
be an inconvenience for the way I interpret the game, and try to teach (it
was a lot easier for me to teach that anyone can do what I do, and its not
just for Thistles/Irises/Laurels when I didnt have awards). But people
felt that I needed awards and I gave up on fighting that, since it was, at
the very least crass and ungracious to be tacitly insulting those people who
were trying to be good to me.
That being said, I have to say that, as much as it violates the example I
have in myself (not to mention my Swedish programming of if you are worth
it, people will recognize that), I am not the normal case. People, as a
rule, dont normally get Laurels without having made SOME effort to get one
(yes, yes, I know, I did cool stuff, and people finally chose to recognize
it since that stuff was in the same general direction as the Laurel, but it
certainly wasnt a goal. I got lucky). For the AoAs and Grant level
awards, yes you can fall into those, sometimes, but peerages usually require
some sort of intent and direction.
There is also the unfortunate reality that not all who deserve awards get
them. Some arent noticed ever for what they are doing. Some may well be
noticed but arent ready yet, have antagonized the wrong people, or have
never realized that there is a political angle that can happen. I know that
in my case, there are a number of people who I just totally despise. I
would like to think that (with one exception) I wouldnt let that emotion
interfere with them getting their deserved rewards [In that one case, Id
relay like to think that I could see past my disregard, but Im not sure I
can which is my problem. Fortunately we live nowhere near one another, so
the chances of it ever being an issue are somewhat slender]. I do know
though that there are people who dont give this stuff this much though, and
are inclined to just never support people they dont like (note, Im not
criticizing this here, Im just saying it happenes). This means that
sometimes people who should be getting awards wont, no matter how much they
deserve them.
This can be very difficult for people who receive their validation
externally, who need to have that push from the outside. Again, Im not
being critical it just IS that some people need external validation, some
people can internally validate, and the majority of us can do some of both..
Even so, as someone who generally can validate myself, based on a job
well done, but yknow, it doesnt hurt to have someone else pat you on the
back, and say they noticed that as well.
OTOH even with how I approached awards, and knowing that if you say you
dont want them, you have no room for whining if you dont get them, there
can be a bitter taste from sitting through yet another watching someone who
is probably quite deserving getting another effing award youll never see;
so I can imagine how painful it can be for someone who actually CARES that
they are being ignored or passed over.
Just as a thought to this, the award I have that means the least to me is my
Army Commendation medal. I got that at the time I left a particular unit,
because in that unit, it was SOP to give everyone an ARCCOM when they left.
So, what are these awards anyway? Is an AoA something to be striven for, or
simply a notice recognizing something that already exists? Is it just an
attaboy, is it a meaningful statement that this person has done something
significant, or is someone we think needs to be communally acknowledged? Of
course, all these questions are just as relevant for every other award.
As much as Id like to see some standardization of awards and why they are
given and what they really mean, I dont think thats really necessary.
What I prefer to see is that people get them *meaningfully* though, and not
as simply cookies, or simple rewards for a good job. Unfortunately that
opens the door to more subjectivity (and from there the possibility of bad
politics).
Im not sure there are any good answers.
Marc/Diarmaid
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