NK - Yes Berengaria, I can document Santa Klaus!

[harriet meeker]

>From: Bethor2000 at aol.com
>I have thoroughly enjoyed your articles.  I found them interesting >and 
genuinely informative.  You obviously have put in the time to >research 
and document answers and topics in your articles...

Thank you, but it's really my staff that gets the credit for that.  I 
just take what they tell me and I try to put it together and explain it 
without snarking off the people who are reading it.

>Unfortunately, I think there is a syndrome the majority of SCA >members 
suffer from that can explain the lack of interest.  I call it >the "More 
Medieval Than Thou Syndrome," and its chief symptom - >Education Envy...

I don't really know if that's true or not because I've never experienced 
that in my own life.  It may be it was for that reason that when you 
came up with this idea, Diarmaid suggested it to me.
Since I'm not a historian, and god knows I'm not any more medieval than 
anyone, that I'd be a good person to answer questions.  It does seem 
though that maybe it was an idea who's time hasn't come yet.

I really did think then, and I guess I still do, that if people 
weren't interested in history, at least to some degree, they wouldn't 
have joined the SCA.  If they want it without a lot of work, or to copy 
what looks cool from a favorite movie, it's certainly not their fault 
that our culture promotes instant gratification, and that our
movies are made by storytellers who want to make an impression, not
teach about history.  But that doesn't mean that they can't have
questions, or deserve to have those questions answered without feeling 
like they are risking being ridiculed.

>Which brings me back to you Berengaria.  Please keep up the good >work.  
It is we the members who should at least try to show a little >effort 
and give you some brain bursting questions...

Easy ones would be ok, too :-)  I turn DOWN questions from Diarmaid 
since he keeps asking the most obscure questions, and he CAN find the 
answers for himself most of the time (I mean, really, does anyone really 
*care* about the origin of "St. Hugh's Bones", or the thread count of 
the Ragland Shirt?)

>With the current explosion of mundane questions of Y2K to set the 
>stage...

Thank you, I appreciate it.

To this Lord Merrik replied:
>I know you have taken college level courses regarding medieval 
>history, and I will agree that in 'OUR' facet of the SCA, the >fighting 
end, we don't run across allot of scholarly types...

Could that just be a perceptual thing (if we assume that Lord Alton is 
correct)?  Maybe people just dumb down in order to fit in?  I know I had 
a cousin who used to do that to keep her friends in High School.  And 
she got -really- uptight with people brassed it out when she felt like 
she had to give into that peer pressure.  Of course, that's just a 
guess.

>So those that we speak of not existing, only don't exist to us, cause 
>we scare them away.

You brutes.

>I wonder if scholars taste as good as bards?

In my experience, bards don't smoke, so yes.

Berengaria Ravencroft
Berengaria at hotmail.com
http://""www.geocities.com/athens/styx/5871"
"The brave man carves out his own fortune, and every man is the son of 
his own works" -- Miguel de Cervantes




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