A tired tirade
Jun. 13th, 2007 07:41 pmThe following quote has been shamelessly appropriated from the journal of ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sasha_khan :
When you say, "I'm ignorant: teach me,"
such honesty is better than a false reputation.
Learn from your father Adam, O clear-browed man:
he said, "O our Lord" and "We have done wrong."*
He made no excuses, nor did he invent lies,
nor did he lift up the banner of evasion.
-- Mathnawi IV: 1388-1390
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
The touchy feely on a certain bardic list is making me want to go down to the boat launch with a fire bucket and some arrows and shoot me some Oakietown zombies. Ooh, I want to mentor somebody but what happens if we both want to be in the same competition? Ooh, poor me! What do I do? This prompted a storm of aren't we all wonderful because we share on this list posts and oh, it's not ABOUT the performer, it's about the job (serving as a titled bard). Raw, rotted brains would be more appealing than Living The Lie as some of these people would like to do.
Of COURSE it's about the performer. The job is about being able to perform. The people who decide whether you get that job had damn well like you as a performer or you're not going to get a crack at it! Yeah, you're serving your kingdom, barony, whatever, but you'd better have the skill AND the ego to get the job done or people will suddenly have a pressing need for the privy in droves when your presentation in court is announced.
How many people mentor because of true altruism? How many do it to make themselves look good? Most people are a mix of both, but when you get to the far ends of the spectrum you have Living National Treasure at one way and Self Aggrandizing Asshole at the other.
I lobbed a common-sense bomb on the list:
There is only one right answer to this question if you have any honor whatsoever. Honesty. Right now,
right up front, BEFORE one of you ends up clubbing the other like a baby harp seal in front of a live audience.
"I am happy to share what I know with you. However, this is the way it is. I want to compete too. Sooner or later you will have to face me in a competition. I am not going to pull my performance punches just
because we are friends or because we are sharing information* or whatever. I certainly do not expect YOU to hold back because I'm participating." Or words to that effect.
*"Sharing information" sounds a lot better than "giving you the benefit of my vast experience." It puts you on an equal footing in which no one need feel inferior or superior.
But what do I know? I know someone is going to object to the harp seal image, but that HAPPENS in SCA competitions. People of unequal skill levels presenting unequal types of material compete all the time and it's not unusual for someone to come out the other end feeling like someone's kicked their puppy. It's the nature of the beast and you either have to suck up and deal with it - or abjure the competition process. The latter has made me a safer, saner, more confident performer.
I also happen to know that there is life outside the hallucination that is the SCA. To that end, I plan to hit the San Francisco Free Folk Festival this weekend. Hard. Both days. I intend to take singing, music and maybe even some dance classes, as many as I can fit in. If the hurdy gurdy is behaving reasonably well, I may even brave the open mic session. Because it IS about me and improving my abilities and taking my chops out into the real freakin' world instead of the safe shelter of an SCA event.
Wow, I knew it was warm tonight, but the channel smells particularly nasty. Wonder if Coast Guard Island has been overrun.....
sasha_khan :When you say, "I'm ignorant: teach me,"
such honesty is better than a false reputation.
Learn from your father Adam, O clear-browed man:
he said, "O our Lord" and "We have done wrong."*
He made no excuses, nor did he invent lies,
nor did he lift up the banner of evasion.
-- Mathnawi IV: 1388-1390
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
The touchy feely on a certain bardic list is making me want to go down to the boat launch with a fire bucket and some arrows and shoot me some Oakietown zombies. Ooh, I want to mentor somebody but what happens if we both want to be in the same competition? Ooh, poor me! What do I do? This prompted a storm of aren't we all wonderful because we share on this list posts and oh, it's not ABOUT the performer, it's about the job (serving as a titled bard). Raw, rotted brains would be more appealing than Living The Lie as some of these people would like to do.
Of COURSE it's about the performer. The job is about being able to perform. The people who decide whether you get that job had damn well like you as a performer or you're not going to get a crack at it! Yeah, you're serving your kingdom, barony, whatever, but you'd better have the skill AND the ego to get the job done or people will suddenly have a pressing need for the privy in droves when your presentation in court is announced.
How many people mentor because of true altruism? How many do it to make themselves look good? Most people are a mix of both, but when you get to the far ends of the spectrum you have Living National Treasure at one way and Self Aggrandizing Asshole at the other.
I lobbed a common-sense bomb on the list:
There is only one right answer to this question if you have any honor whatsoever. Honesty. Right now,
right up front, BEFORE one of you ends up clubbing the other like a baby harp seal in front of a live audience.
"I am happy to share what I know with you. However, this is the way it is. I want to compete too. Sooner or later you will have to face me in a competition. I am not going to pull my performance punches just
because we are friends or because we are sharing information* or whatever. I certainly do not expect YOU to hold back because I'm participating." Or words to that effect.
*"Sharing information" sounds a lot better than "giving you the benefit of my vast experience." It puts you on an equal footing in which no one need feel inferior or superior.
But what do I know? I know someone is going to object to the harp seal image, but that HAPPENS in SCA competitions. People of unequal skill levels presenting unequal types of material compete all the time and it's not unusual for someone to come out the other end feeling like someone's kicked their puppy. It's the nature of the beast and you either have to suck up and deal with it - or abjure the competition process. The latter has made me a safer, saner, more confident performer.
I also happen to know that there is life outside the hallucination that is the SCA. To that end, I plan to hit the San Francisco Free Folk Festival this weekend. Hard. Both days. I intend to take singing, music and maybe even some dance classes, as many as I can fit in. If the hurdy gurdy is behaving reasonably well, I may even brave the open mic session. Because it IS about me and improving my abilities and taking my chops out into the real freakin' world instead of the safe shelter of an SCA event.
Wow, I knew it was warm tonight, but the channel smells particularly nasty. Wonder if Coast Guard Island has been overrun.....
