[Sca-cooks] How do you answer such a question

[Susan Fox]

Vivat Alina!  I have every confidence in you, Stefan, that if she were 
to be elevated first, you would be nothing but pleased and proud of her.

I'm the type who would produce a flowery phrase like, "It is more 
important to serve the needs of the people, my liege, and what they 
needed from me in that moment was a clean wholesome kitchen."  But 
that's just me.

Selene Colfox

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Last year we spent some time talking about being called up in an SCA 
> court and kneeling (or not). I have in fact recently created a 
> Florilegium file from that conversation.
>
> Anyway, in Court yesterday at Bryn Gwlad's Candlemas event a quandary 
> came up and I would be interested in hearing how you all would have 
> reacted in a similar situation. I guess there is also a bit of 
> bragging on my lady wife.
>
> Lady Alina was back in the kitchen cleaning the pots and the pans and 
> first got called out of the kitchen when the Baronial Officers were 
> called before the Baronial Court to thank them for their service. 
> After dropping off her awarded glassware to me for safekeeping, she 
> disappeared back into the kitchen.
>
> A while later HRM Gunthar calls her into Court and someone went into 
> the kitchen to get her. There was some banter about where she was 
> while we were waiting for her, which of course she didn't hear. She 
> walks up before Gunthar and kneels on the carpet in front of Gunthar, 
> not wanting to soil the fancy royal kneeling cushion since she is 
> soaking wet from her knees down.  Gunthar tells her to please kneel on 
> the cushion, since that is what it is there for. Gunthar then asks her 
> "Whether it is more important to wash dishes or be in his court".
>
> Of course I know Gunthar from this list, and realize he might have 
> been in that kitchen if he hadn't been Crown. I doubt she was.
>
> Kinda a Catch-22 question. So how would *you* answer such a question?
>
> You probably don't want to say "Yes, it is much more fun to be sopping 
> wet in the kitchen scrubbing dirty dishes than be in your Court".
>
> If you say "Court is more important" then the second question becomes 
> "Then why were you not here".
>
> Alina was then awarded the Ansteorra Star of Merit, the Grant level 
> award for Service.
>
> Alina hesitated to accept a hug from Gunthar since her arms and 
> shoulders were also wet from her kitchen travails. The Court Herald, 
> Rhiannon, who has known Alina since she joined the SCA was unable to 
> keep her voice from breaking when reading her scroll and Alina was 
> also crying before she left the Royal Presence.
>
> Oh yes, and one or more people told Alina they weren't going to let 
> her go back into the kitchen to finish scrubbing the pots. I'm not 
> sure that the pots did get cleaned before we had to leave the site. 
> Someone may have had to take them home since they had quite a layer of 
> stuff burned to their inside bottoms.
>
> Vivat Her Ladyship Alina!
>
> I guess I better start doing some service or she is going to be made a 
> Pelican before me! :-)
>
> Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
>
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