[Ansteorra] on leaving the SCA--

[HerrDetlef]

Master Cynric, what I am about to write is not a response to your post but
to the thread in general.

To paraphrase many a marshal: Center up. We're getting close to the edge.
The ways in which we apply the term "Nazi" are a subject for discussion
best left elsewhere. The subject at hand is leaving the SCA--or not. I hope
I'm not being rude in suggesting we stick to that subject. Discussions
around the label "Nazi" rarely end well.

In the meantime, the subject at hand is one that involves many hurt
feelings. How about we acknowledge those hurt feelings without being
sarcastic or passive-aggressive about it? A little mutual respect never
hurt anybody. It seems, in a way, that we're all after the same
thing--the highest return on our time/money/energy investment. Let's
address that: how much one gets out of the SCA depends on how much one puts
into it. Is it a profitable investment of our time/money/investment? How
can we make it profitable enough to justify the investment?

The SCA offers a diversity of levels of involvement. Not everybody can go
to war. Not everybody can build a period tent or a suit of armor--or wants
to. Not everybody can or wants to travel to weekend events, and not
everybody can or wants to participate in local meetings during the week.
The people who can and want to probably will. Those who don't have no call
to be looked down on. You take what you want, and you give what you're
willing. As long as you make an attempt at period garb and keep the Burger
King bag off of the table at feast, everything else should be gravy. Not
everybody will be a Lion of Ansteorra, nor will everybody be a Peer of the
Realm or win a crown tournament--and that's okay. And some people aren't
satisfied with an award or even a grant of arms. There's a lot to see and
do in the SCA. Nobody should feel pressured to do everything.

While I'm rambling, I just thought of something else that's been running
across my mind lately. Many people who play SCA are titled nobility; they
wear coronets to events and are addressed as anything from "Your
Excellency" to "Your Majesty." Many more are not. But here's something we
keep forgetting. The people who are NOT titled nobility are not peasants,
and they should have no reason to feel that they are. Everybody who plays
SCA--from the newcomer to the Crown--can be addressed as "My Lord" and "My
Lady," as these are not titles that can only be given by the Crown but
marks of courtesy. Everybody who plays SCA is an aristocrat, unless one
deliberately chooses a non-aristocratic persona--which is that person's
prerogative. No matter how many times we have won or attended a crown
tournament, we are all descended from Diana Listmaker, Siegfried von
Hoflichskeit, and Fulk de Wyvern. We should all treat each other like
royalty (shy of the way Henry II treated his wife Eleanor!). Being treated
like royalty makes one feel welcome, appreciated, valued, respected. Who
doesn't want to return to an environment where he or she feels those
things? If we treated each other like royalty, and if we treated newcomers
like royalty, what a (an even more) wonderful place this would be!
Newcomers, old-timers, and everybody in between--we all need each other,
and we should all appreciate and nurture each other.

In everything we do in the SCA, we should always ask ourselves this
question: are we encouraging others to play more, or are we encouraging
others to play less? Let's strive to encourage each other to play
more--within our means, of course.

Now that I've come to the conclusion of all my abstract philosophizing, how
do we turn these ideas into action?

Yours in these Current Middle Ages,
Detlef von Marburg, CSM


On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 5:55 PM, Robert G. Ferrell <rgferrell at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 2/5/2013 5:35 PM, Bree Flowers wrote:
>
> We don't call our friends whores, despots or murderers, so why do we
>> call any of them nazis? I mean unless they actually were members of
>> that political movement and participated in the mass genocides, in
>> which case have at it.
>>
>
> Honestly, calling someone a "Nazi" is slander/libel. These were some of
> the most pathologically evil people who've ever lived.
>
> If you want to call me a 'period enthusiast,' that's OK.
>
> 'Lion' works, too.
>
> Cynric
>
> --
> Robert G. Ferrell
> rgferrell at gmail.com
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-- 

Was nicht umbringt stärkt.