Why all the fuss?
Oct. 27th, 2008 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeySaturday night I had a dream about standing in the Wyckoff Deli (a place in New Jersey I have not been to since the 1990s) on a cold, rainy day, waiting in line to place a lunch order. Paul Bettany ("Master and Commander," "The Da Vinci Code,") walked in, came over to me and gave me a huge, somewhat soggy hug. I remember the smell of wet wool pea coat and his bony chin digging into the top of my head. I made fun of the very British way he pronounced pasta fagiola as we waited to be served and tried to decide what to have. "We're in Jersey. It's pasta fazOOL!" Which all goes to prove - what?
As of this evening, it has been confirmed that the person who wants to dance with a sword at an SCA event as a shirabyoshi believes in reincarnation. She claims to have had dreams she believes in, including one in which "I was dancing with a very large curved blade slender and the dance was irregular in beat
but very beautiful."
I don't know from past lives. This old earth doggie has not personally experienced anything to lead me to believe I've been here before. I've known people who have. If I had all the answers they'd have to pay me more.
Whatever one believes, this woman had a dream that inspired her. There's just one problem. She hasn't done the homework to confirm or refute whether her dream perception is based in historical fact. It's not research. Not yet.
Why does this matter so much? After all, isn't the SCA an assortment of like-minded crackpots to begin with?
In some ways, yes. However, there are some people who believe that those of us who occupy certain non-Western minority niches should go away and like to finger point and naysay. Those of us in that niche often work very hard to do what we do because it inspires us and we love it just as much as our European brethren. We are so few and yet so visible for our different choice, some of us DO worry about being made to look bad.
This woman has already been made to look bad by a Mistress of the Laurel who helped teach her to make a Genuwine Keemonah that wouldn't pass muster at a Halloween party.
What she does next is up to her. I can only hope....
(On the other hand, the Barbie kumihimo lady over on the Tousando seems like she's very willing to learn - I have thrown her the link to Tangwystl's awesome historical dolls. )
As of this evening, it has been confirmed that the person who wants to dance with a sword at an SCA event as a shirabyoshi believes in reincarnation. She claims to have had dreams she believes in, including one in which "I was dancing with a very large curved blade slender and the dance was irregular in beat
but very beautiful."
I don't know from past lives. This old earth doggie has not personally experienced anything to lead me to believe I've been here before. I've known people who have. If I had all the answers they'd have to pay me more.
Whatever one believes, this woman had a dream that inspired her. There's just one problem. She hasn't done the homework to confirm or refute whether her dream perception is based in historical fact. It's not research. Not yet.
Why does this matter so much? After all, isn't the SCA an assortment of like-minded crackpots to begin with?
In some ways, yes. However, there are some people who believe that those of us who occupy certain non-Western minority niches should go away and like to finger point and naysay. Those of us in that niche often work very hard to do what we do because it inspires us and we love it just as much as our European brethren. We are so few and yet so visible for our different choice, some of us DO worry about being made to look bad.
This woman has already been made to look bad by a Mistress of the Laurel who helped teach her to make a Genuwine Keemonah that wouldn't pass muster at a Halloween party.
What she does next is up to her. I can only hope....
(On the other hand, the Barbie kumihimo lady over on the Tousando seems like she's very willing to learn - I have thrown her the link to Tangwystl's awesome historical dolls. )
