Re:heartache

[Annejke@prodigy.com (MS MARTHA L WALLENHORST)]

Poster: Annejke@prodigy.com (MS MARTHA L WALLENHORST)

I have been watching this exchange in silence for a while but I feel 
compelled to put in a word.  As the editor of the Compleat 
Anachronist I travel the known world (either in person, on the phone, 
or on the net) and talk with many new people every month.  Often the 
first thing a person from another kingdom asks is where I live.  I 
reply 'Atlantia' and duck!  In 9 out of 10 cases I am then regaled 
with horror stories of this visiting fighter, or that person who just 
moved here from, or do you know what one of YOUR fighters did to ... 
at the ... war I was at, or simply the question: Are all your 
fighters jerks or just the ones who have come here? 

 My husband stopped fighting several years ago when he had his hand 
broken in battle and was laughed at by his opponent (who was a good 
foot taller than him and probably a 100 pounds heavier), as he went 
in shock and collapsed on the field.  To this day no one has asked 
him what happened, or why he wasn't fighting anymore, and he was a 
trainer at Gunston for three years.

  I am polite about the fighters when questioned and simply reply 
that my husband doesn't fight any more so I am not as familiar with 
them as I used to be.  Then I get on with business.  It is very 
distressing to know that the reputation on ones kingdom is tarnished 
but Atlantia is.  I will continue to duck, be polite and get on with 
life, it would simply be nicer if I didn't have to duck first.

Annejke
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