[Bards] College Hash

[Darius]

Gerald queried :
<snip>
>  Or can we be casual in our useage of the target?  Can we be
> casual in the non-usage of the target?

Well without the intent of being rude, this is not a choice the college 
actually has.

We as the college are going to know that Finnacan is a bard, even if he were 
to throw up his hood and wander into the night muttering about newts eyes 
and bat wings. It is really hard to miss that Eleanor is a bard. I know 
Michael is a fine Musician with an incredible wit, who can turn a phrase in 
delightful fashion when he is relating a story, yup that's a bard to.

Of course that guy in the green tunic wearing a sky blue sash with gold 
trim... hmmm walks like a bard, talks like a bard, says it's a bard.... Yep 
must be a bard! However so is the other guy over there singing a song and 
not wearing anything.. don't know his name but I am pretty sure he is a 
bard.

On the same note, are people outside the college going to understand about 
those of us _not wearing_ these tokens.  Depends on who tells them what the 
sash/favor is for. Just as with my original introduction to the college (and 
the sash), a persons opinion and perception will be flavored by the 
information they receive and how it is presented.

If wearing a baldric or favor helps a person new or old show themselves to 
those within and without our community as a bard then they will do so, and 
more power to em. It takes some guts to stick your self out there like that. 
But not wearing it doesn't make them any ;less a bard or lessen the effort 
of _any_ performer that steps into that ring of light upon a star lit 
evening and sing a song or tell a tale.

It all goes back to what we as individual members of the college are going 
to do. I can chose when ask about a sash and why I don't where one in the 
future to say "Oh I just find them terribly inconvenient, that's all." or I 
can rail against _the college_ and their rules that say I have to wear it.

Those who wear them can chose to say, "It's a bards sash, the College of 
Brads gives us the choice to identify ourselves as bards in this fashion" or 
they could say, "It's a Bards Sash, All bards _should_ be wearing them. It's 
in the College Charter."

Granted these are extreme examples but it's an illustrative point. New 
comers to our fellowship and to the SCA will perceive us as we present 
ourselves and by our actions they will judge the college as good or bad. 
Certainly mistakes will be made, we must accept this as well if the college 
is to succeed and survive.

In Faith
Darius