[Northkeep] Remembrance

[Kevinkeary at aol.com]

I am saddened.
I won't talk in hyperbole or parables, of any ethnicity.
I will speak of our history, mine and yours, even those few of you who have 
 not been here as long as I have.
When I first came to a gathering of Northkeep twenty-nine years ago -- more 
 that half of even MY lifetime -- it was a fighter practice. In a park. A  
co-worker of mine, known in the Society as Patricia MacFarland, herself 
recently  moved to Northkeep but already in touch with the shire members, 
brought me and  my wife in. And our three-month old son. We met the members of 
House Provence,  Caer du Pard, and Casa de Marada. We met the inimitable 
William Blackfox. We had  encountered the SCA more than a year before in a demo in 
Sacramento, but this  was our first chance to participate, to become and be 
a part of it. And the  pageantry, because that's what it seemed to us, was 
palpable at that fighter  practice. 
Fighter practice was in front of the public eye back then. The public came  
by, watched, some few of they stayed. Nobody was a knight. Few were even  
squired. (Finn and Sif had moved away just before that.) But the fighters we 
had  could put on a show, and they did. And so did the rest of us, the 
dancers, the  singers, the storytellers. The fighters practiced, but we LIVED the 
dream on  those Saturdays. And we brought people in.
Needleworkers was a different venue, and served a different purpose. People 
 gossiped, told stories, planned projects, or just hung out and visited. 
Listened  to Patricia's latest song or read William's latest comic. Sometimes 
even a  little needlework got done. But it was turned inward, a time to 
connect and  learn about each other. It was for us, where Fighter practice was 
at least  partly, always, turned outward, aimed at the outsiders that might 
become  newcomers.
Other 'guilds' came and went, over the years. There were armorer's guild  
meetings and brewer's guild classes, dance and bardic and now archery 
practice.  But those, too, were turned inward, serving our own needs. And worse, 
they were  insular, allowing people to exercise and grow their own interests, 
but doing it  apart from the whole populace.
There were issues with the city parks department, that had always provided  
the venue for our fighter practice, and using those parks became harder and 
 harder, and using them to reach out to the public became harder as well. 
And the  attention of the fighters shifted too. It became less about playing 
for the fun  of the game, and to show off to the outsiders, and more about 
progressing,  gaining position in the kingdom's fighter hierarchy. The 
fighters turned inward,  and the rest of us, who had left them to be the public 
face -- the dancers,  jugglers, storytellers and bards had all faded away -- 
were slow to realize that  we were no longer showing the public what fun 
there was in the Game, what magic  there was in the Dream.
When the current venue for fighter practice was obtained by now-Sir Ulf,  
the idea was sold to the barony that here was a place where we would not have 
to  worry about the vagaries of weather, where the fighters could gather 
rain or  shine, heat or cold, wind or still. And more, there was room for all 
of us. We  gave up on the idea of using fighter practice for its old 
(secondary, but still  important) purpose of showing ourselves to the public, but 
in exchange we would  be able to all share time together, heavy and light, 
bard and costumer and  scribe and dancer. We could grow back together, 
reconnect. That seemed like a  worthwhile trade, to me anyway. And it worked, for a 
while.
In ways it was a victim of its own success. As we grew, the venue did not.  
It in fact shrank. When I started gaming there, we had a room off to 
ourselves  where our decidedly non-Baronial activities would minimally offend 
others. That  room is now a set of cubicles, because the owners of the venue 
needed it so --  and who could blame them for using their property as they need 
it? They needed  the building on the nights we had arranged to use it, so 
we moved to another,  and then were told they need the half of the building 
we had been shunted into  even on that night once a month. And meanwhile, the 
prestige of the heavy  practice grew in the region, and as a result the 
number of heavy fighters grew,  so that there was no room for anything else in 
the other half of the building.  This is a good thing, for those fighters, 
but not I think for the cause of  unity, of making connections across the 
interest divides.
And we were also shown that we have not been teaching some pretty basic  
SCAdian values to the newbies, nor reminding all the old-timers effectively.  
Things like pulling your own weight, living up to obligations, something as  
basic as cleaning up after yourself, leaving the space you use cleaner than 
it  was when you got there. That's not the fault of the fighters, that's 
the place  of the culture-imparters, the bards and storytellers. The teachers 
of our ways  and our mores. Those who make the SCA more than just a fight 
club with  clubs.
And now I'm told that fighter practice SHOULD just be for fighters, that  
all others there disrupt the ambience. That all those years when it was the  
social focus of the shire, and later the barony, were wrong. That it is 
wrong  now. I suppose the same must be true for the tournaments at events, and 
those of  us who merely herald them, or just watch them to cheer for their 
chosen  champions or just to enjoy the panoply, well, that must be wrong, too.
I am saddened.
I remember a Northkeep that stood together, every interest group and every  
household, and refused to die when the Kingdom grew weary of us. A 
Northkeep  that turned its back, I hoped and thought forever, on name-calling and  
back-biting and in-fighting of any sort, that was determined that however 
much  honor and respect we got (or more accurately, didn't get) from the rest 
of  the kingdom and the rest of the Society, we'd be DAMNED before we'd 
disrespect  each other. I want that Northkeep back. I don't see how staying away 
from  fighter practice will bring it closer, but being there clearly won't.
I say again,
Peace,
Kevin