[Bards] What can we do to make things better
Gerald Norris
jerryn at houston.rr.com
Wed May 2 08:02:30 PDT 2007
Weally, Wobin! That's wude!
I have a hard time picturing you as a bad example. I have an easy time
picturing you as stubborn. ;-)
This is the problem I have with the whole good bard / bad bard (no cookie!)
thing, and even with the label bard in or kingdom. I put "a bard of
Stargate" in my signature, but truth to be told I've only written a few
songs that have anything to do with the history of our kingdom, my barony,
or my patron when I act as champion for a barony/shire/canton/party-of-one.
But there's a lot of people who point at me and say "He's a bard," (which I
used to think was code in the kingdom for "He'll drink all your beer"). We
have bardic circles, but when I take a look at their frequency and activity,
I can more easily compare them to Victorian parties than 13th century
gatherings around a fire.
So. The question isn't one of supression, but re-direction. In this forum,
there are a number of people who have been playing this portion of the game
a lot longer than I. I'm still at the stage of struggling with the idea
that I might have some - thing that other people might want to learn. Some
of you might raise your hand in agreement. How do you suggest to the crow
that perhaps story-telling might be a venue they should try? How do you
persuade the stutter to try an instrument, or song? How often is it done?
In service to the dream with a song in my heart, I am,
HL Gerald of Leesville
A bard of Stargate
-----Original Message-----
From: bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Jay Rudin
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 8:52 AM
To: Ansteorran Bardic list
Subject: Re: [Bards] What can we do to make things better
Gerald asked:
> Our community likes to think of itself as a nurturing community that
> encourages new talent to grow. We do a fair job of it, but from time
> to time we go too far and try to nurture that which just ain't there.
> A silk purse / sow's ear dilemma. And who, among us, wants to be the
> one to go tell the gentle that they really should consider accordion
> lessons? I promise you, I'm not struggling to be first in line.
>
> That having been said, how do you tell a person who wants to be a
> nightingale that they're a crow? How do you handle someone who wants
> to be a skald that a stutter of that magnitude is just REALLY hard to
> get around?
I dunno. In early Ansteorra we had a particularly bad example. Somebody
wanted to become a bard even though he had a clear, recognizable,
distracting speech impediment. It was so bad that he couldn't even
correctly pronounce his own name.
Furthermore, he was a stubborn, egotistical person who could not be
persuaded, so we were forced to listen to his works. Nobody was able to rid
the kingdom of this irredeemable would-be bard. What a shame that he wasn't
gently persuaded to sit down so we could hear the good performers instead.
Wobin of Gilwell / Jay Wudin
_______________________________________________
Bards mailing list
Bards at lists.ansteorra.org
http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/bards-ansteorra.org
More information about the Bards
mailing list