[Elfsea] Events --- Then and Now

[pcrandal at sbcglobal.net]

Hey Gustav, 
I think what you are saying is that WE ARE the
The Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat (take your pick). 
And WE created that bureaucracy. Ruled by desks. 
WE need to be ruled by hearts and minds. 

Crandall, Olde Phart 

--- Gustav Minnesinger <synrik at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> First thing I want to point out is that “In
> the Good ‘ol Days” . . . . We were all
> younger, fitter, wilder, less stressed and more
> Gung Ho about everything that we did.  The air
> was sweet, the nights were long and a smile was
> on everyone’s face.
> 
> And today, we whine for what we have lost inch
> by inch . . . . The Parties are cold, the fires
> are silent and the wines have the taste of
> dust.
> 
> It not just us, but on other lists and other
> Kingdoms . . . We are getting older.
> 
> I have heard over the last year or more (some
> quiet and others ranting from the roof),
> “That if the Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat would
> only do This . . .”, or  “That if the
> Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat would only promote that
> . . . “  That this some-how keeps us from
> having fun or being the social group of misfits
> partying to the break of dawn that we were in
> “The Good ‘ld Days”.
> 
> Sober up and Get a Pair!!!
> 
> The Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat (take your pick)
> have been doing what they have always been
> mandated to do for the last 30+ years.  The
> Baronies are cheerleaders that try to find out
> the interest of their people.  The Autocrats
> are organizing it down to the details to make
> sure that the defined duties are met.  The
> Kingdom ensure that the frame-work for the game
> is held in place and things are operated to
> meet legal, safety and customs.  (Perhaps too
> condensed, but the thoughts are there).  But we
> have changed . . . We have gotten older and
> tired.
> 
> What I have seen is the slow decline of
> activities and formations from our Guilds and
> Households.  In the ‘Good ‘ld Days’, if
> your household or guild wanted to do _____, all
> you had to do was ask the Autocrat for a little
> space and to be able to announce that you will
> be doing _____ at the event.  Easy, simple and
> everyone is happy.  But the Households began to
> decline and the customary Party/Hafla/Drum-jams
> began to disappear.  At that point, people
> began to grip “Where did ____ go?”, “Why
> did the Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat not allow them
> to do _____?”  
> 
> But it is not their fault . . . It is our’s.
> 
> The Great household that used to run and bloom
> and stomp with pride and laughter across the
> great lands are now few and far between.  Like
> the buffalo, we have been pinned in by our own
> advancement (some of us have become peers, and
> peers just don’t do ____), by the stress of
> life that we have failed to leave at home, by
> worries of money and politics, by the crying of
> children, by the breaking down of our own
> bodies and the march of time.
> 
> It is sad, but it is the facts as well --- We
> have failed parts of our own Dream.
> 
> And Time marches on . . . . . 
> 
> It is not the burden of the
> Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat to keep us occupied and
> happy.  It is our own blood, sweat and tears
> that must be shed to ensure that freedom.  It
> is calling 3-5 of your friends and saying,
> “Hey, I was thinking of doing ____ at ______
> event.  You want to help ensure that it is so
> over the top that no one forgets it!!!”  It
> is getting together and saying, ‘We are now a
> _____ (Service/Fighting/A&S/Partying)
> Household.  Let’s see if we can make some
> noise!!!’
> 
> Everyone finds it easier to blame someone else
> for not being happy, when we should be looking
> in the mirror, taking a deep breath, and saying
> that today will be the Day.
> 
> Ask not of what can the Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat
> do for you, But what you can do for the
> Barony/Kingdom/Autocrat!!!
> 
> 
> 
> Gustav Minnesinger
> 
> "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
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"In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should 
afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, 
contentedly, even happily wrong." 
-John Kenneth Galbraith