[Ansteorra] Wanting Awards-forced award

Iago baroniago at earthlink.net
Thu Sep 28 15:10:59 PDT 2006


They  don't want to go to meetings.
They don't want the recognition.
They disagree with X that "all the Pelicans/Knights/Laurels stand for"
They believe that ____________ deserves it more.
They believe it is a job description, rather than an award, and they  
don't want or feel up to the job.

These are reasons I've heard from people who claimed they didn't want  
one peerage or another. (Note, they all have since been made peers,  
or in one case received another peerage)

Iago
On Sep 28, 2006, at 4:35 PM, gail young wrote:

> Why would someone who is obviously doing the job of a peer not want  
> to be recognized as one?
>   gwyneth
>
> Michael Silverhands <silverhands at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> On Sep 28, 2006, at 3:49 AM, Robert Fitzmorgan wrote:
>> Our culture views it as somehow disreputable to openly seek
>> awards,
>> recognition and praise, but at the same time we find it difficult
>> to believe
>> that someone really isn't interested in those things.
>
> A real-life example: someone whom I know was being considered for the
> Pelican's circle. One of the circle knew that the person (I'll use
> the genderless "Pat" to protect their privacy) had previously
> expressed a wish not to be made a Peer, so he discretely asked Pat.
> Pat's answer was clear, succinct, and unequivocal: "If I am offered a
> Pelican, I will refuse. If I am called into court to be made a
> Pelican, I will leave the SCA and never return."
>
> We got the hint. Sometimes you have to hit us over the head with a
> clue stick. Sometimes more than once.
>
> But it's as you said:
>> ... When someone
>> says they don't want an award, our culture has trained us to
>> interpret that
>> as meaning that they in fact do want it but are refusing it because
>> they
>> don't want to appear greedy, proud or whatever.
>>
>
> Because they couldn't *possibly* mean what they said, that they don't
> want the award. And if our hero actually *does* refuse it, we don't
> understand that and try to come up with our own explanations for why
> that might be so (which ties back to Sir Lyonel's comments of the
> other day about ascribing motives and labels to people, to explain
> behavior that we don't understand).
>
> We *are* a funny lot, aren't we? :-)
>
> By the way... a quibble: you used a common turn of phrase, "refuse
> the honour", which I assume you used as a harmless figure of speech.
> But in this case I will beg to differ with that word choice. You
> aren't refusing "honor", because that's a gift that only you can give
> yourself and has nothing to do with awards. For most awards, what you
> are refusing is "glory" -- and I think that's the point that "Pat"
> was trying to make.
>
> For a Peerage, of course, you are also refusing appointment to an
> office (for life) in addition to the glory. :-)
>
> Michael Silverhands
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