[Ansteorra-archery] The new award

[Timothy Rayburn]

>>were up to me, I'd waive a majic wand and make all those who have the Kings
>>Archer, it's been given out with more or less the same frequency as a Grant
>>award, members of the new order.  But I can't do that, can I?
>
>I don't know that I would recommend everyone who has a King's Archer.
>I don't think that I, for example, deserve the Arcus Majoris, and
>probably never will.  But neither do I feel cheated with only a
>King's Archer.  I am proud of that award, and honored to be counted
>among such august company as the King's Archers.
>
>Rumil


I will go one step further, and suggest to those archers here that the concept of supporting for elevation everyone who has a King's Archer is a poor one at the least.

HL Fearghus and his two companions have a very important charge on their shoulders.  If they are to steward this Order well, as has been done for the most part by the White Scarf and the peerages, then they must accept that they should expect more of every one that follows than was expected of them to recieve the award.  This may seem extreme, but it is how to steward this Order so that it becomes more than 'just an award' but rather becomes something which archers everywhere strive for.

The rest of the archers of Ansteorra (holders of the King's Archer or otherwise) have as their responsibility to strive to improve their skills because they enjoy it.  To teach their skill because they love it.  To aid young and old alike to shoot better, and to learn from those that will teach to improve their own skill.

I once sat in on a meeting between the White Scarves of Ansteorra and the rest of the rapier community.  Don Modius then imparted some very wise words.  He suggested that one of the things he most looked for was a rapier fighter who was simply doing their very best to improve themselves in the art, not one who was striving for the goal of the White Scarf.  The reasoning was that those who strove for the award most often stopped once they reached it, where as those for which the White Scarf was merely a marker at the side of the road that they continued to travel were amoungst the finest of the White Scarves.  I suggest that there is a lesson in this for both the premiers of the Arcus Marjoris and the rest of the archers.

So say I, Timothy of Glastinbury.