SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #167

[david friedman]

>Don't get me wrong...I think there is plenty of room for formality, and
>formality can be fun. BUT, there are folk who forget that this is a big game
>of pretend. For instance, recently a visiting "heiress" had quite a tantrum.

(story omitted)

I don't think this is an issue of "pretend." Important people in period who
tried to demand unreasonable things were making a mistake too. The line
"punctuality is the courtesy of princes" is not from the SCA. My favorite
Caliphs, Umar, Muawiyya, and al Ma'Mun, were effective in part because they
didn't take themselves too seriously.

A certain freedman of the prophet hear the Caliph Umar talking to himself
in a garden:

"Umar, Prince of the Muslems. That sounds very fine. You'd better watch out
for God, Umar, Prince of the Muslims."
- --
On one occasion Amr, still Governor of Egypt, came to Damascus to visit
(the Caliph) Mu'awaya, who was now grown old and feeble. His freed slave
Wardan was with him. The two old men fell into talk.
	Prince of the True Believers, said Amr, what pleasures keep their
savor for thee nowadays?
	Women? said the Caliph; no-I do not need women any more. To go
fine? My skin's so used to stuffs the softest and richest, I cannot tell
what's of the best any more. And eating-I have eaten delicate dishes so
many that I can no longer tell what I like. No, I think I have no pleasure
keener now than drinking cool in summer, and seeing my children and my
grandchildren go about me. And thou, Amr, what's thy last remaining
pleasure?
	A bit of cultivable land, said the conquerer of Egypt; enough to
yield me some fruit, and a little profit over and above.
	Then the Caliph turned to the freedman Wardan. Thou, Wardan, said
he, what would be thy last enjoyment?
	A noble generous deed! said he. Some deed that would live in the
memory of all remembering men, and earn for me in Eternity.
	The audience is concluded! cried Mu'awaya; that's enough for today!
This slave here, Amr, is a better man than thou or I.

(Quoted by Eric Schroeder in Muhammad's People)
- ---
The Caliph al Ma'mun was an enthusiastic chess player, but not a master of
the game. "I am the master of the world," he used to say, "and to that task
I am sufficient. But to master two spans square, that is beyond me."

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/