[Bordermarch] Questions posted July 18 by Mistress Lorainne DeerSlayer for demographics

[Samuel E Orton]

> 
> Dear Bordermarch on-line,
> Mistress Lorainne Deerslayer poses these questions.
> We encourage members of the barony to take a few minutes to respond 
> to her email addy if you are not on ansteorra @ ansteorra dot org 
> Use <ldeerslayer at yahoo.com>.  Herewith:
> ............................
> In an effort to try to figure out how to attract new people and keep 
> them in, here are a series of questions that I'd like as many of you 
> as 
> possible to answer...so that I can get a good "demographic"... keep 
> answers brief...please...
> 
> (Q)1. What attracted you to the SCA?

        Initially, an interest in Medieval Fantasy. Before hardly any
time at all, the sense of being part of a group to whom honor *mattered*.
I have seen any number of people in the mundane world make choices that
were at odds with their own core values because, "Oh well, that's the way
the world works." Likewise, I have seen any number of SCAers accept
social and financial burdens that many would consider utterly insane,
because they would not sacrifice their honor, they would not "look the
other way." The SCA has taught me that "that's the way the world works"
*only* if you allow it to work that way.

> 
> (Q)2. What is your perspective of what the SCA is to you?

        Something I miss terribly. It's like being exiled, being away
from Bordermarch for so long. But at the same time, I accept that right
now the SCA is a luxury I cannot afford. While I still take the values of
the SCA into the mundane world with me, nonetheless I am forced to remain
focused on mundane issues for the time being, and probably for a year or
more to come.

> (Q)3. Where do you invest the most time and energy in the SCA 
> (household,
> local group, kingdom, specific activity)?

        I am a bard. That's not what I do, that's what I am, and I cannot
escape it any more than I can stop breathing. Over time, I have tried
many things in the SCA. That's what I always come back to, my "ground
state" if you will. Spike, the Attack Muse, will never let me go.
        Other than that, Bordermarch will always be my home, more than
anywhere else. Even more than my own apartment.

> 
> (Q)4. How long before you started to take initiative in the SCA 

        In some ways you could say I never did. I'm not really a very
good leader, nor do I work well as a member of the pack. I do my best
work when, rather than being pre-committed to a single function, I can go
to whoever looks most harried and say, "Okay, what do you need done?" I
take a lot of pride in the number of people who feel that "Once Iain has
said he'll take care of it, I can forget it. It'll happen."
        If that's taking the initiative, I don't think I ever *didn't* do
that. But I'm a much better scout than I am a sergeant, and a much better
sergeant than I am a platoon leader.

> 
> (Q)5. Were there instances that could have "run you out of the 
> SCA"..why did they not...or why did you come back?

        What held me was the people who took honor seriously, who
considered it the core of their lives. After having been in many Baronies
and Shires in 6 Kingdoms, I can say that alas, that is hardly universal.
Where it is "just a game", and the people who live the Dream of Honour,
Grace and Chivalry in their daily lives are marginalized or nonexistent,
I have stopped playing. Where my fumbling attempts to get my own life in
order had to take precedence whether I liked it or not, I have stopped
playing. Where factionalism, politics and "cliquishness" have been the
rule instead of the exception, I have stopped playing. Where it seemed
the purpose in the majority of the local group was a display of status
and social ambition rather than fun and honor, I have stopped playing.
        Even in the darkest of times, I have always felt that I could go
back to Bordermarch or Greywood and remember why I joined. And I'm sure
they are not unique.

> 
> (Q)6. How long before you burned out? Why did you burn out? Is there 

        Hmmm.... See above. I burn out easily, but like a trick candle, I
keep lighting back up again. After 22 years, I keep coming back, like a
bad burger.  *grin*

> 
> (Q)7. What do you get out of the SCA?

        The SCA is one of the only places in my life where I don't feel
like an outcast. It is the only place where I can find someone to whom I
could explain that the reason I drive an old car and live in a cheap
apartment is because the price I face in personal dishonour to live in a
fine house is one I simply refuse to bear. It's the only place I can
reasonably expect to find someone to whom I can say that honour can be a
very heavy burden, but well worth the carrying, without them looking at
me like I suddenly sprouted a second head and started speaking Martian.
        Please understand, I am not claiming that *anyone* who lives in a
fine house has sacrificed their honor to do so. No insult intended to
ANYONE. We all face our own choices, and no two people's are the same.

> 
> (Q)8. If you have your AoA...how long did you get it after starting 
> to
> participate in the SCA? 

        I have moved a lot, so often by the time someone has started
thinking of award rec's for me, I am about to move away. This resulted in
my being, um..... eight years before I got my AoA. I'm not complaining
though. I thought it was amusing that I had managed to dodge it for so
long. To be honest, I'd much rather be out on the site making the event
happen than in court getting an award.

> 
> (Q) and last but not least...why do you think that people should 
> join the SCA
> and stay in it?

        Just as children can pick up bad habits at school no matter what
their parents try to teach them, so anyone can pick up bad habits from
their environment regardless of what they tell themselves they try to be.
Any therapist can tell you that if someone hears from all quarters that
they are worthless, eventually they believe it themselves, regardless of
evidence to the contrary.
        The SCA, to me, is a vital reminder that honour and manners have
value, and that you are not alone, you are not a freak, to think so. It
is a reminder that treating every woman as a Lady and every man as a
Gentleman is not something you do for others, it is something you do for
yourself, and worth *much* more than the effort it requires. I consider
the SCA to be the best hope we have of putting the concept of personal
honour as paramount back into everyday mundane life. And in that sense, I
consider it to be a "vital service", every bit as much as firemen or
paramedics.

                                                                         
                                      In Joyful Service,

                                                                         
                                              Iain MacCrimmon

Banish to silence the four letter words, whose meaning is never unsure.
The Angles and Saxons, those hardy old souls, were vulgar, obscene and
impure.
But cherish forever the weaseling phrase that never quite says what you
mean.
You'd rather be known for your hypocrite ways than as vulgar, impure and
obscene.

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!