What's Wrong With Us?

It seems like the question of why there aren't any home-grown White Scarves in northern Artemisia is one that just keeps coming up. It even came up at Harvest Court this last weekend, but the answer I heard was a new one. It came from a knight who said, "You guys don't know how to be White Scarves." And this from a knight who is actually fairly fencer-friendly.

A bit of a Catch-22 there, I'll admit. At least for those of us who don't travel a lot. We don't have any White Scarves up here to teach us how to be White Scarves, so nobody earns their White Scarves, so we don't have anyone to teach us how to be White Scarves, and so on. The answer for those who have the time and money is, of course, to go to where the White Scarves are. Yes, it'd be nice if we could get them to come up here, but with the distances involved and the costs, I can completely understand why they can't make it up north more than maybe once or twice a year.

Which still leaves us in the position of being adrift in the White Scarf sea (and also helps explain why we tend to be a bunch of uncouth barbarians). And, quite frankly, it tends to leave us a little frustrated. We can see we're missing something, but we don't have any idea what. So we wind up fishing around, looking for help where we can. That's how some of us more experienced fencers have found ourselves in positions of authority. We're not White Scarves, but at least we know some. But we suffer from the same problem. After all, if we knew how to be White Scarves, we'd already be White Scarves. So we find ourselves copying the closest we have up here: the knights.

It's a start, at least. But an armored fighter isn't a fencer, and their priorities aren't the same as ours. If nothing else, they have a whole different sense of grace. Yes, a good armored fighter is graceful, but it's the grace of a main battle tank forging into the thick of combat: pure power, honed to a terrible perfection. That's not the grace of a fencer. The grace of a fencer is like the rapier itself: a sense of simplicity and beauty combined in elegant effectiveness.

Maybe that's also why we northerners tend to excel at melee - we can do effective, but elegance takes some work.

But none of this helps solve the problem we have here in the north of trying to learn how to be White Scarves. And I don't see any simple answer for those of us who must limit our travels. The most I can suggest is that our southern cousins be patient with us northern barbarians and, when possible, help teach us country bumpkins what it takes to be a White Scarf.

NGT&S

There was a time when the fencing community was known throughout the kingdom for its willingness to help out. It seemed like any time the Northern Garrison traveled, we'd show up on site and immediately be put to work, without any question of our willingness to help.

Now don't get me wrong, I still see plenty of fencers doing their part to help others, but I've also seen the occasional gaggle of fencers sit around and watch as a lady pulled a cart of water to the list fields. And yes, they received a spot correction.

It seems from my experience that it's the newer fencers (not necessarily the younger ones) that tend to ignore these opportunities for service. That suggests to me that the problem is one of education, and I don't mean mundane schooling. Rather that we more experienced members aren't taking the time to teach our newer members the value of helping out, except by example. Yes, teaching by example is a good start (it sure beats sitting around the camp fire, telling people what to do), but it's only part of the equation. Not only do we need to show them what to do, but we need to teach them when to do it. When the herald comes by announcing that they need help setting up for feast, or setting up the royal pavilion, don't just get up and go, tap the shoulders of your newer friends (or potential friends) and say, "Let's go." And when they're done, thank them. Maybe even offer them a beer (if they're of age). I, myself, will do amazing things for a simple cup of coffee.

Now we shouldn't expect to be rewarded for helping others, that's labor, not service. More often than not, I'll do my best to avoid any sort of reward for helping out - for me, service is a way of paying back what the Society has already given me - but if someone insists on rewarding me, I'll accept their offer graciously.

The ironic part of that is that I have cast tokens for the sole purpose of recognizing people who I either see going out of their way to help others, or who make exceptionally good passes while fencing. Yes, I who don't like to be recognized came up with a way to recognize others. They're nothing fancy. In fact, the best way to describe them would be crude, but they're my little way of encouraging others and helping ensure that the SCA continues to be a Society worthy of pride.

Retail Ramblings

I realized that it's the middle of the month and I haven't done a single post yet. All I can say is that I've been busy getting ready for Harvest Court next week. I realize that in the big scheme of things, it's a relatively minor event, but with Antoine stepping up as Baron, I want to make a good showing of myself. So I've been engaging in the usual pre-event madness of making new garb, both for myself and my youngest son. Needless to say, his garb was a lot quicker than mine: why waste a lot of effort on something that he'll outgrow in 6 months? The project for myself, on the other hand, was 6 hours work (not counting shopping for the "perfect" fabric before finally realizing that I had good stuff already) for a single coat. But it's (mostly) done: all I have to do now is get the frogs for the front.

I realize it may come as a shock to anyone who's seen me the past few years that I can sew my own garb. After all, my entire current kit (with the exception of one rather worn tunic and a jacket) is store-bought. But that's actually a new situation for me. It's only been the last couple of years that I could afford to actually buy pre-made garb. Before that, it was all home-made (and, in a few cases, hand-made), and usually made from scraps or treasures found at Goodwill. And towards the end there, I was actually getting pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. Not that anything I made would have won an Arts and Sciences competition, but I'd graduated beyond t-tunics and was doing actual, fitted garb.

But then I joined the Army and got muscles. Suddenly, all of my nice garb was too fitted. So I made do with what loose-fitting garb I still had, and it worked pretty well. What few events I made it to were of the day-tripping variety, so I only needed one or two outfits. And all was good until I got out of the Army. You see, when I first got out, we ended up having to stay with my brother-in-law for a few months, so the majority of our stuff was in storage. Now, I thought I was being smart when I made sure all of my fencing gear (blades, mask, gorget) traveled with me, but I'd made one small mistake: my fencing tunic was with my garb, in storage.

And that's where my foray into retail began: I bought myself a commercially-made tunic/doublet combo. And that worked great: it even doubled as regular garb. At least until Uprising. There was no way I'd be able to wear one outfit for the entire event - including fighting. By that time, my stuff was out of storage, and I was able to cobble together two or three outfits (all either old, too small or ugly), so I began adding to my kit, a piece at a time.

Now, here it is two Uprisings later and I've gotten a decent set-up: a couple good tunics, a couple not-so-good tunics, honest-to-God pants, even a good doublet for court. But Schola showed me that a nice, thick wool doublet, although good for evenings at Estrella, is not the best choice for warm-weather events. Thus the new jacket. Yes, it's still wool, but it's much lighter and a looser weave. And no, it's not nearly as fitted as the work I used to do, but for a first attempt in over five years, it'll do, and it'll allow me to layer up for those bitterly cold events like Twilight in Valhalla.

And it does leave me thinking about the $1.79/yard muslin, and how it'd be nice to have another tunic or two. And pants, I need more pants...