[NR] Thoughts on the past

willow taylor jonwillowpel at juno.com
Fri Feb 15 12:41:25 PST 2002


You are right. Lord Jonathan and Lord Koris, now Duke Koris came up to
the first Med Faire and were the contacts with the SCA that got Nanrom
started. We were  more into the doing then. We were into the concept of
community. Not a club but people being involved with people. Many of the
builders of Ansteorra were social scientists and they realize that we
were not only dealing with building a 20 th. century organization but we
were dealing with a subculture that had it own values. I don't know what
people are talking about when they talk about THE DREAM but I know the
values of Ansteorra. We learn values from other people, by their actions
and there interactions with us. There is a lot of confusion about our
values right now. If everybody was on the same page wouldn't have people
complaining about each other. Talking about the pins and needles that
make up each one of our dreams is dangerous. This is a very emotional
subject and there is bound to be someone out there that differs from you.
It is very important that we start talking if we want to solve our
problems.

Role playing for example. I love role playing. To me role playing is THE
DREAM. But it was a year ago I got roasted for wanting to role play. I
know some people who hate role playing. Now I think if you say M'Lord and
M'Lady  and you bow you are role playing don't know why these people have
a problem. Some people hate any of the courtly stuff because it is not
REAL. I don't understand this. I didn't join the SCA to be REAL. I joined
to escape the real world. Some people are  touchy about this and think
that MY role playing is forcing them into something which is not THEIR
DREAM. If there are  forces out there actively campaigning against role
playing wouldn't that explain the decline of some courtly behaviors. I
don't want to name names but I know that all of these people use the term
THE DREAM a lot. I was wandering around having a good time  and these
people rained on my parade and destroyed my persona. I don't have one
right now and I am hating being REAL. I didn't realize that THE DREAM
meant being intolerant of each other.

My point is this: We have differing concepts which are not being talked
about and we are running into problems. We need to talk about what we
think is important. One Lady from the Middle told me that they  didn't do
that role playing stuff and then she  complained about the lack of honor
and courtesy in her group. The more REAL we are the more mundane we are
and the more the SCA function as a 20th century group. The more we
function as a 20 th century  group the more likely we will act as a
normal everyday person. Normal everyday people do not make pretty
speeches or give flowers or bow or many things we think are important in
Ansteorrra.

By the way I have always stated we could make room for everybody if we
use our heads. Is there anyway to get more space at the Med Faire?

Willow de Wisp


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