What do you mean, you don't have one!

[gurdymonkey]

The following is prompted partly by today's post by the lovely and talented acanthusleaf and partly because renown, as my Rocky Mountain Bushi friend says, is indeed a very funny thing.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and the mad networking skills of the Nihonjin of the Known World, I have, for good or ill, a reputation. I'm fairly active on the sca-jml Yahoogroup and the Tousando forum.  Because I don't have much in the way of Japanophile playmates in my own kingdom, I have made the effort to get out and meet the ones I do have at events outside my kingdom. (Which rocks, by the way, if you've been following the Rising Sun saga in my journal entries.)  The following blushworthy blurt was written only yesterday by one of my campmates: "Saionji!!!! O MY GARSH!!!! notorious i tell you! Got to spend more time with Saionji this year also and i am a better human being because of it. Where life is the rough sandpaper that scrapes and tears at the fabric of a persons being, Saionji is the ointment that soothes and heals you. Thats right folks, she aint just pretty face, she really does know her stuff!" (OK, this is what I get for giving someone my spare tube of lip balm and telling him to keep it.)

I have a rep. What I do not have is a Laurel. Periodically, the discovery of this fact leads to well meant, deeply offended cries of "What? You don't HAVE one?" usually by someone who is lower on the SCA food chain than I am. It happened again this week. It was equal parts sweet, terrifying, and embarrassing. The last thing I need is for some well meaning and uninformed member of the Makiwara Fan Club going off like a bomb on my behalf. So I'm going to tell you what I told the party in question.

All is well. I do what I do because I like doing it, within the limits of my time, skills, budget, inspiration, etc. It is not my business or his to know what the council thinks because we are not on said council. I have no say in the matter - until and unless I am asked, at which time I will give the invitation the serious consideration it deserves. More tea?

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

I don't have a Laurel either. ;-D Tea would be lovely.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

If the peerage can't withstand the screams from the hoi polloi...

...well, that would be the peerage.

Did I ever mention my ex, who straight out of college (when he realized he wasn't in a position to do anything with his BFA in hot glass) started making and selling Japanese costume at SCA events, and moved on to late medieval European, early renaissance and Elizabethan (and a smidge of Stuart for the folks who wanted Cavalier), and is still doing it to this day (also at SF conventions and faires)? The one who was heavily active for a decade and a half in Barony and (inter-)Kingdom events? The one who would help folks with fabric shopping trips, patterning and learning to sew?

The one who never got a Laurel? Who got a kingdom-level arts award in 1989? And watched (deserving) friends who had been involved for shorter periods of time but who weren't making a living at their art be called for vigil?

Then again, you've already heard my opinion on how the peerage's reality isn't always congruent with its ideals.

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

There is a commonly held perception that "The Laurels" say that those who merchant shouldn't get elevated because they're making money at it.

Not that I'd know since I aren't one but that's what some of my merchant friends have said.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I'm not a merchant (anymore). I'm not a Laurel (I never even got an AoA).

I know plenty of merchants who earned their Laurel.

Very few of them earned it in the art they were practicing professionally (or, in most cases, semi-professionally; there aren't that many SCA merchants who make a real living at it, and my ex is one of them). Many of them earned it back when we all were still figuring out how to recreate period dirt.

Coincidence? Perhaps.

But I've been out of the scene for a decade. I also never worried too much about winning society awards. I earned my kudos in other realms.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

You're not in my kingdom, behbeh. So I keep my trap shut.

[dustinmartinez.livejournal.com]

bu4 ru4 hu3 xue2 yan1 de2 hu3 zi3

How can one retrieve the baby tiger without going into the tiger's nest?

Basically great reward = great risk.


The xia or wuxia are compelled to right wrongs. I understand your humility with this situation, however its hard not to stain the sword.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

O Great And Badass Hero of China, truly, there are no wrongs to right, no foes to battle and no "situation" to rectify. (Except perhaps sweeping the remaining confetti out of the folds of my tent as soon as it stops freaking raining around here.)

Now do put that sword away lest it discomfit my friends. ;-D

[sasha-khan.livejournal.com]

BAD-ass ikon.

I may need a new (dry) shirt.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I understand the feeling! A good five years elapsed between the start of people saying to me "what do you mean you don't have a Laurel" and being elevated. At first the question was kind of embarrassing, but over time it happened often enough that I learned not to be phased by it, though I never did learn to cope with "why aren't you a Laurel?".

On the other hand, years after becoming a laurel, I moved to An Tir and was there a few months before one of my friends approached me and said

"I've heard this rumour about you"

"Oh?"

"that you are a super-uber-stealth peer"

I admitted to the Laurel and the Viscountcy, and she was amazed because I didn't introduce myself with the titles nor display a huge medallion at eye level.

[sasha-khan.livejournal.com]

The last thing I need is for some well meaning and uninformed member of the Makiwara Fan Club going off like a bomb on my behalf.

As a member of said Fan Club - who has acted in such manner - let me say that we do act in such manner because you inspire us, and because we all feel great loyalty to you. We are legion, and are bound by honour (whether you call it

bushido

or

futawwah

) to act, when we feel that you are slighted, O Lady.

Forgive us our ham-fisted attempts, when we act in haste...

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

(Face palm. Who died and left me LOBBYISTS??????)

[bedouinchick.livejournal.com]

Think of it this way -- at least you know your vigil tent will not be empty. Let your cheerleaders do their job. People who do not get recognized as they ought to often do not have rabid fans -- count yourself most fortunate in the eyes of Allah!