[Steppes] The Dream, New comers, and how we play the game.

[Jessica Smith]

Greetings,
We heard recently on the list that the dream for one of our populace members
appears to have been interfered with. I'm sorry I have not responded sooner.


The Dream, to me, is very much still alive. However, my dream is social, and
is activity based, and I absolutely expect it to grow and change. I actively
work at putting myself in situations where I am living my dream. Be it on
the field of battle, in the Rapier Lyst, in the Bardic Circle or at the
feast table with my friends. Do I ever really kick the mundane out of my SCA
events? No, but do I ever kick the SCA out of my mundane life? Never. Every
day there is something - a small bit of maintenance - a populace, a class,
an email, a phone call. My dream is not limited to events - and you better
believe that I do get extra sparks of it every time I speak to a new comer
about it.

I've heard elsewhere about how we treat people we do not know. It's not that
we treat them badly - its that as a populace we treat them not at all. I've
heard remarks on people showing up at events - garb on, chair in hand - no
place to sit and find conversation. I know that I have always been welcome
anywhere I have wandered - in the pavilions along the lyst fields, the
bardic circles, etc. However, I also have no problem accosting people with
conversations and salutations. I have not had one member of this great
barony tell me that they do not want new people. We are just a little shy,
set in our ways - we don't see the lonely new best friend wandering around
looking lost. Friends, we have to start Knowing and understanding that if we
do not make the efforts to keep new blood in the dream that the dream will
grow old, get a new career, move away, change, and eventually become too
crippled to put on the events, cook the feast, and fight for its consorts.

We play the game in our own way, but It often doesn't take much more then a
question to someone working on their embroidery to have them explain what
they are doing and offer to teach - same with fighting, and same with most
things - we have no problem answering the questions - we have to learn to
ask them ourselves.  The simple question of "Can I help you find something?"
will almost certainly never end up with you having to walk a person across
miles and miles of camp  - however, it almost certainly will always make
someone else feel more welcome, and even if that person is looking for his
or her group - you've made a connection. You never know, that person could
be new to the area and need a bit of shade and someone to talk to - and
you'll make a friend, or they just needed to know where the portopotties are
and well there you go, see that tree - around the corner to the left. We do
so much traveling that it always amazes me that we assume that everyone
knows where they are going.


So I have a Challenge for the populace, as we are going to having so many
events so close together and so close in our area. If you are at an event, I
challenge you to look around you and throughout the course of your day ask
five people you do not know "Can I help you find something?"



Yours in Service to the Dream,
Vyolante de Oporto
Steppes Hospitaler