SC - questions/kinda long, sorry

[Laura C. Minnick]

On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, Jeff Gedney wrote:

> A rude person with a Funny Hat (tm) and a string of titles was probably 
> a rude person to begin with, or had that as a suppressed attribute.
> 
> For every horror story about newbies you come up with, I could come 
> up with a dozen where the opposite is true. 

I just have to 'talk story' here...

I found the SCA 11 years ago next week. I was working on a book, having a
hard time finding the sources I needed, and when I saw an ad in the paper
for a 'Medieval Fair', I called the contact listed, got another number,
and ended up talking to someone whose name I couldn't pronounce. She was
excited about my project and said "Come on out! I'll help you find someone
who can help you!" The folks at the gate had interesting looks on thier
faces when I told them who I was to meet, but they took me to a very
interesting woman wearing HUnnish and Mongolian clothing, sporting a
tooled brass circlet. It turned out she was the Crown Princess. She had
her lackeys introduce me to a couple of people, who then looked at each
other and said "We know who she needs to talk to!" and sent me off to the
A&S tent, where I met more folks. All incredibly friendly and helpful and
enthused at my interest. All but the lackeys and the one grad student in
the A&S tent were peers. Most became friends, some very close, and one is
now like a brother to me.

Ir is my experience that there is a certain percentage of people, SCA or
not, who a jerks. Rotten, rude, hurtful, brash, abrasive jerks. You will
find them in schools, churches, on the street, in City Hall, at the
grocery, in places of power, and hanging from the back of the garbage
truck.  And there is a time in life when one must sit up straight (even
if only inside) and say to themselves "That person is being a jerk. It is
uncalled for and rude and inappropriate and THE PROBLEM IS THEM, NOT ME."
And then go on with head high. 

And now back to work and my pointy-haired boss... ;-)

'Lainie