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

[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.