[Elfsea] Troubled Times and Leaders --- LONG

[Gustav Minnesinger]

“ . . . In these troubled times.”

I hear that a lot these days, but I don’t feel it.  I am happy and up-beat, my family and friends are doing well and have a smile on their faces; things are going well.  

What I do hear day after day is the bombardment of : Gas Prices, American and world politics, world plagues, wars and death, rape, murder, and people in general not being nice to other people.  It has gotten to the point that I don’t listen to the news much anymore on the big three stations, because they only thrive if they can make you think that we are on the brink of Armageddon any day now.

I go out to a Demo or an event, and I get my fill of what I miss in my daily life:  A chance to geek about history and art, a chance to chase someone around with a stick and to be chased as well . . . . A chance to laugh and smile with friends I have just met or have not seen in a while.  I choose to be happy and thus I am.  I see someone bored or confused and I say, “Let’s go have fun . . . What do you like doing . . . “  Joking and laughing while setting up / taking down tents, the labor of love of cooking for 100, wiping the sweat from my brow and thinking “Wow, I was a part of this!!!”

I could choose to be un-happy.  I could choose to whine and to say that the world is against me.  I’ve been unemployed for over a year, my daughter is a senior next year, health is an issue, everything is more expensive, my friends are stressed over the little things in life, and other people try to bring me dawn as well.  Yep, I could whine.  I could be depressed over the failing health of my parents, the near foreclosure of my in-laws, the bad judgments of my friends.  I could be depressed and looking for ammo if I chose to do so.

But I don’t.  I am Happy.  I had good teachers and leaders in my life.  People who made it fun and interesting to learn something new or to help others.  People that taught me that to see a single child’s smile is worth all the sweat you can muster; to see a woman’s smile is worth your blood.  People who knew that many hands made it faster, and one good jester or workman’s song can make the time fly by. . . Can make other’s envious that they had not been there themselves.  

These people . . . These teachers are my leaders.  Some of them are Peers, Barons and Kings.  Many of them are just people that makes even the hardest work seem light in their presence.  

Duke Madadi came back from the fields of Gulf War all hot a sweaty, Looked around camp and the skies and said, “Damn.  Need to dig ditches.”  Hearing this, and the weary look on his face, people jumped up and offered to dig.  He said, “Give me a moment of rest and a shovel, and we’ll get to it.”  Some young lady spoke, “But Sir, if you will take a seat and this mug, we’ll dig if you tell us a story.”  We dug and with a smile, he gave us a story or two.  Other’s came, listened and dug a bit too.  It was not work.  He did not touch a shovel, had a chance to rest a bit, and only commented that we may loose a person in some of the trenches (“Sorry Sir, you were a bit too inspiring.”)  He is a leader.

Baroness Stella (OP, OL, etc.), showed up to an event after a long drive and a hard mundane week.  Noticing this and the dozen boxes and armor sitting in her car, she allowed me to help get some of her things set up, including her A&S display.  Unpacking her display, I asked all kinds of questions about the beautiful jacket and head-dress that she had made.  It seemed to perk her up as she began to explain all the parts and why she chose to make that particular project.  But she did not talk down to me or try to glaze over parts she did not know a whole lot about.  She explained it simply and to the point.  She got to know what kinds of tools I had and let me know, that with a couple of weekends, I too could make something just a wonderful.  She pulled out the huge tomb of documentation and explained that it was something that she had been thinking about on and off for a couple of years, and just photocopied the pages when she found them.  Not any hard work per se, just persistence.  She inspires me.  She let’s me know that I can do it, and hopes that I will do.  She is a leader.

Who are the leaders of Elfsea?  They are the people who you would want to work with and inspire you to do more.  They are the people that make that parcel a little lighter in your hands or the sweat a little sweeter as you set things up or tear them down.  They are the people who make you dream and make you spend hours over a project because you now know that you can do better.  They are the people that make you hold your head high when they say, “. . . and my friends.”  Because they see something better in you than you may see yourself.  These are the people that show up day after day with a smile on their face, who you know by name and seek out to say Hi if not share a mug with if time allows.  Some are peers and others are just Lords and Ladies.  But most are special in that they hold the Barony’s highest service award: The Keystones of Elfsea.

Who are your leaders?  I don’t know.  I know who I can say leads me, who inspires me.  But if you are looking for a leader that will somehow make you happy; I would ask, why are you not happy?  Have you made a choice to be miserable?  If not, are you going out and trying to bring a smile to another’s face?  Do you know of a leader that you could pledge your service to, to make things a little better?  Are you yourself enough of a leader to inspire your friends to go out and bring a little happiness to others?

Make a choice to be happy and make it infectious.

Gustav


"There are people who say I have never really done anything wrong in my life; of course, they only say it behind my back." ---Oscar Wilde