Fw: *WH* Recognition of deserving gentles, a further look

["Jonathan Blackbow" <blackbow@sprynet.com>]

Reposted with permission from the original author-

JB
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Blackbow <blackbow@sprynet.com>
To: Jessica Rechtschaffer <jsrechts@email.unc.edu>
Date: Monday, March 02, 1998 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: *WH* Recognition of deserving gentles, a further look


>I guessed that maybe you'd want to see what I planned to say before
agreeing
>to let me repost it...here ya go
>
>JB
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jessica Rechtschaffer <jsrechts@email.unc.edu>
>To: Jonathan Blackbow <blackbow@sprynet.com>
>Cc: merry rose <atlantia@atlantia.sca.org>
>Date: Monday, March 02, 1998 7:27 PM
>Subject: Re: *WH* Recognition of deserving gentles, a further look
>
>
>>
>>I think the last thing the SCA needs is more awards.  It's already
>>smelling like the boyscouts.  Yes, some awards are needed to encourage
>>good work/volunteerism and the like, especially when it comes to service
>>to the society/local group/kingdom etc. etc.
>>
>
>[One of the things we're missing, and I think this would address that
need.]
>
>>Excelling at something means you generally get a reputation for doing
>>good and a good reputation is a lot of reward right there.  After all,
>>another danglie is just that, a danglie.  The true meaning is in the
>>skill.
>>
>>Lyanna
>
>[This last part is quite true.  However, two salient points:
>
>1.  I couldn't tell you how many fighters I know/hear about who genuinely
>enjoy fighting but whose single "complaint" (I hesitate to call it even
>that) is that "I'll never get knighted."
>
>These people think (and so do a lot of people) that knighthood IS a merit
>badge, and that if they bust their butts for a long time, they'll be on the
>path to knighthood, which is a false supposition.  Knighthood isn't the
>automatic be-all and end-all of being a fighter in the SCA.  But it IS the
>automatic be-all and END-ALL of recognition.  Isn't this just a bit silly?
>Why take somebody who would genuinely enjoy fighting and set them up to
>fail?  Why not give them a system in which they can take pride in their
>accomplishments instead of bemoaning their inability to win the Holy Grail
>of fighting?
>
>2.  I may step on a few toes with this statement, but so be it...
>
>To reprint Lyanna's statement for emphasis,
>
>>Excelling at something means you generally get a reputation for doing
>>good and a good reputation is a lot of reward right there.  After all,
>>another danglie is just that, a danglie.  The true meaning is in the
>>skill.
>
>[This is true.  However, excelling at something and screwing up at other
>things means that you generally get a reputation that isn't that good.  And
>a good reputation isn't something everybody CAN get, no matter how good
they
>get at something, or several somethings.  Speaking from experience.
>
>But a danglie, regardless of how it comes, is another danglie.  I dunno; I
>have one danglie.  If I don't show up at all the right events and hobnob
>with all the right people and say all the right things and do all the right
>stuff, that's about all I can expect under the current system.  So maybe a
>danglie is just another danglie to you, but to people who aren't capable of
>getting anything else, another danglie is something they'll treasure, and
>bust their asses for, knowing that they CAN achieve that danglie.]
>
>Lyanna also said:
>
>>The true meaning is in the
>>skill.
>
>[True.  But a danglie system would give a useful MEASUREMENT of that skill.
>Why else do you think they have different colored belts in just about every
>other art, martial or otherwise, that exists?]
>
>Regards,
>
>Ld. Jonathan Blackbow
>Clan O'Shannon
>