[Northkeep] Sigh...

Kevinkeary at aol.com Kevinkeary at aol.com
Tue May 26 23:26:41 PDT 2009


I have held my tongue until now as my baron -- and more importantly my Anda 
 who has a job to do that I don't like making unnecessarily hard -- has 
asked. I  apologize in advance for momentarily not following the letter of that 
 instruction. I hope to hold to its spirit. I have little to say that 
hasn't  been said, but I am extremely unhappy with HOW some of it has been said.
 
I have heard some rather nasty and undeserved things said about and  to 
this barony we have built and some of the people in it. I won't  join in that. 
I WILL remind you of WHY I won't.
 
The things said of Northkeep might have been deserved once, when we were  
Nord aus das Strom -- North out of the Storm. We saw the Storm far to our  
south; too many of us thought that was how the game was supposed to be played; 
 we sniped and feuded and called ourselves Nordliche Sturm, the  Northern 
Storm, and we brought the Storm to us and down on us. We learned.  
Northkeepers are human, and humans make mistakes, but the Storm is no part of  the 
heart of Northkeep -- we don't play that way. We are BETTER than that.
 
We don't belittle our fellows for their feelings. We try to understand, and 
 we try to show them -- respectfully -- where they're wrong when they are, 
in our  opinion -- and we remember the difference between facts and opinion. 
We don't  accuse each other based on appearances or innuendo; we ask 
politely for  explanation and we LISTEN to the answer. We give and earn respect.
 
We don't shunt our responsibilities off on others; we don't EXPECT our  
fellows to make up for our lack of responsibility, but we DO give assistance  
freely, and accept it gratefully and not like we are entitled to it. We give 
and  earn trust.
 
We don't shut down contrary opinions, but we DO insist on those opinions  
being expressed constructively. We eschew divisive, caustic commentary and  
sarcasm. We remember we are among friends and family. We give and earn  
fellowship.
 
We show pride and support when our fellows receive recognition. We know and 
 accept that it reflects honor on ALL of us, and we remember that we are 
here to  have and create fun, and maybe learn and improve ourselves in the 
bargain, not  advance ourselves as measured against anyone else, much less at 
the expense of  anyone else. We help each other toward our goals. We give and 
earn glory.
 
And when we stumble, when we fall short of that, of what we are trying to  
make Northkeep be, when we are reminded of the ideals we espouse and try to  
embody, we stop, take a breath, look at our OWN behavior as measured 
against  those ideals and not against the behavior of our fellows, and we 
apologize and  CHANGE. We give and earn and accept correction and growth and 
improvement.
 
And when we DO argue, we do it one on one, in private, not posturing in  
front of others that are not even OF Northkeep. Like on this forum.  That, 
too, is part of respect, for ourselves and for each other and for our  guests 
who are visiting here.
 
We've seen where feuding and bickering, backstabbing and conniving,  
accusation and innuendo and rumor-mongering and all the rest of the Storm lead.  
We are Out Of it. It has no place here.
 
This is Northkeep.
 
Kevin
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