Who OWNS the SCA?
Nov. 16th, 2020 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
storytimewithjoeThis is a subject that I have often thought about when we have considered hot topics like Tradition, Change, and plans for the future for our odd little hobby of dressing up in funny clothes and beating each other with sticks.
To be clear, I am not talking about the legal definition of “owning”. Obviously the Board of Directors owns (or at least controls) the major things such as the name, the finances, etc. But when it comes to how the SCA looks on any one given day in a particular place, who decides? Or, more importantly, who should decide? Should it be the royals? The peers? Everybody? The Old Timers? Speaking for myself, I am coming at this with the viewpoint and experience of a former landed noble, Laurel-Pelican, and somewhat old-timer of thirty years of continuous activity. And while I believe the SCA is here for all and open for all, its future rests on one group – the young.
I joined when I was young. I was in my early 20’s, and was wide-eyed, naïve, energetic, clueless, and probably more excited than anything. I knew next to nothing about history, and wanted to learn it all now… NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW! I know for a fact that my overactive enthusiasm was a serious turn-off (at first) to many of the people that I met. I had all the energy of a young-but-not-yet-paper-trained-puppy, and my energy and ideas were just too much for the people around me who really did not have time or interest in babysitting. But as I started to attend events, and see how things were working, I slowly started to become a part of the machine at large, and even had the opportunity to take the machine in some different directions. That opportunity is what cemented my relationship with the SCA. I felt like I was being given a chance. Sure, I ran into some roadblocks – a lot, actually. But I come by my Portuguese stubbornness earnestly. And when I ran into a roadblock, I often found a way around it. To me, that is the single most important quality for somebody who is coming into the SCA – not their background, not their knowledge of history, but their willingness to learn and grow WITH the society.
30 years ago was a very different SCA than today. Fast forward where now we have many more kingdoms, many players, many old-timers, and several people who hold onto particular methods or traditions or customs with an absolute deathgrip. I can’t say that this is necessarily a bad thing. There are particular ways and means and traditions that I truly admire and support. But what price do we pay when we refuse to change? We run the risk of driving away the young. Why? Because, while I’d like to think we make a point to make everybody feel WELCOME initially, we don’t always do a good job at making everybody feel like they BELONG. And that’s a key difference.
I know I must come across to some people as irreverent to Tradition. That could not be further from the truth. Rather, I believe the word, “Tradition” is often mis-applied and used to describe all things done the same way more than once. Is that “Tradition”? Or is it complacency? Just to illustrate, having the same menu over and over at an annual event is not what I would call a tradition. (Shudder!!!!) To me a “Tradition” is something that is done intentionally to provide framework or context, to keep alive an important cultural memory, or to help create a distinct identity. Every kingdom has their own unique traditions. But do we exist for the traditions? Or do the traditions exist for us?
I am of the belief that the best judges of the importance of “Tradition” are, in fact, the younger people. Do the younger people feel like the tradition serves them? Does it help provide a really cool framework to play in? Or is it just an excuse to block them from doing what they would like to do? That last bit is extremely important. Why? Think about it. No SCA tradition is older than 54 years. Most are, in fact, much younger. Every single tradition out there was, at some time or another, a brand new idea. And chances are that the person or persons who came up with the idea are the ones most attached to it. Are those people still around? Does keeping that particular tradition actually serve any of the players of today? If so, FANTASTIC! But if not, then we are doing a disservice by preventing a change.
I know this may sound absolutely blasphemous to some people who are truly invested in tradition. And please understand, I am NOT advocating scrapping them. Rather, I think they need to be qualified to see if they still are useful to the players of today. This is an important thing for us to do. Why? To provide an opportunity for the younger and newer players to leave THEIR mark and THEIR legacy. I was given that opportunity when I was younger. But as the SCA ages, I feel that many of these opportunities to do something new or different are blocked. And when a newer person comes into the club only to be told, “no” over and over; why in the world would they want to stay? It is not their job to keep something alive just because somebody came up with an idea 30 years ago and wants it to continue until the end of time.
So I return now to the initial question I asked. Who owns the SCA? Yes, we all do, in many ways. But the future of the SCA belongs to those who will be around. Will I be around in ten years? Twenty years? I don’t know. Will it be the “job” of people in ten or twenty years to keep doing the things that I came up with as a matter of tradition? Or will it be their job to look at the game and help it grow and evolve to make it theirs?
I believe it is important for those of us who are “old-timers” to be open-minded. When it comes to tradition, I believe we should spend less time guarding it, and more time explaining it. WHY do we do things in a particular way? What is the reason that it started? Is it really cool and unique? Is it based on historical precedent? Does it reflect an important part of the culture of the locale? Who knows? Maybe the younger people will say, “Oh WOW that is cool! That sends chills up my spine, at how cool it is!” which pretty much means that have bought into keeping it alive. Or…they may give you that blank-stare look that communicates that the concept just simply does not resonate with them. And ya know what? That’s ok. Just because the thing really no longer serves the people today does NOT strike it from history and does NOT mean it wasn’t cool in its time. But the SCA does evolve. Regalia is retired over time as we acquire cooler, nicer, more authentic, better regalia. People retire from the SCA. Events come and go. We learn new things. People have new ideas. And when we say, “NO!” as a knee-jerk, we run the risk of damaging our own growth.
If you take nothing else from this long-winded post, I hope it is this. The future of the SCA and ALL of the SCA’s traditions relies upon the young. And the choice of keeping those traditions going really is up to them. If we drive them off because of our refusal to even consider change, our traditions will die when we die. But if we educate the young about our traditions, and then give THEM the chance to invest themselves in tradition, or be part of their evolution, the traditions may very well continue even after we are gone.
Think about that, old-timers. Think long and hard about that.
To be clear, I am not talking about the legal definition of “owning”. Obviously the Board of Directors owns (or at least controls) the major things such as the name, the finances, etc. But when it comes to how the SCA looks on any one given day in a particular place, who decides? Or, more importantly, who should decide? Should it be the royals? The peers? Everybody? The Old Timers? Speaking for myself, I am coming at this with the viewpoint and experience of a former landed noble, Laurel-Pelican, and somewhat old-timer of thirty years of continuous activity. And while I believe the SCA is here for all and open for all, its future rests on one group – the young.
I joined when I was young. I was in my early 20’s, and was wide-eyed, naïve, energetic, clueless, and probably more excited than anything. I knew next to nothing about history, and wanted to learn it all now… NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW! I know for a fact that my overactive enthusiasm was a serious turn-off (at first) to many of the people that I met. I had all the energy of a young-but-not-yet-paper-trained-puppy, and my energy and ideas were just too much for the people around me who really did not have time or interest in babysitting. But as I started to attend events, and see how things were working, I slowly started to become a part of the machine at large, and even had the opportunity to take the machine in some different directions. That opportunity is what cemented my relationship with the SCA. I felt like I was being given a chance. Sure, I ran into some roadblocks – a lot, actually. But I come by my Portuguese stubbornness earnestly. And when I ran into a roadblock, I often found a way around it. To me, that is the single most important quality for somebody who is coming into the SCA – not their background, not their knowledge of history, but their willingness to learn and grow WITH the society.
30 years ago was a very different SCA than today. Fast forward where now we have many more kingdoms, many players, many old-timers, and several people who hold onto particular methods or traditions or customs with an absolute deathgrip. I can’t say that this is necessarily a bad thing. There are particular ways and means and traditions that I truly admire and support. But what price do we pay when we refuse to change? We run the risk of driving away the young. Why? Because, while I’d like to think we make a point to make everybody feel WELCOME initially, we don’t always do a good job at making everybody feel like they BELONG. And that’s a key difference.
I know I must come across to some people as irreverent to Tradition. That could not be further from the truth. Rather, I believe the word, “Tradition” is often mis-applied and used to describe all things done the same way more than once. Is that “Tradition”? Or is it complacency? Just to illustrate, having the same menu over and over at an annual event is not what I would call a tradition. (Shudder!!!!) To me a “Tradition” is something that is done intentionally to provide framework or context, to keep alive an important cultural memory, or to help create a distinct identity. Every kingdom has their own unique traditions. But do we exist for the traditions? Or do the traditions exist for us?
I am of the belief that the best judges of the importance of “Tradition” are, in fact, the younger people. Do the younger people feel like the tradition serves them? Does it help provide a really cool framework to play in? Or is it just an excuse to block them from doing what they would like to do? That last bit is extremely important. Why? Think about it. No SCA tradition is older than 54 years. Most are, in fact, much younger. Every single tradition out there was, at some time or another, a brand new idea. And chances are that the person or persons who came up with the idea are the ones most attached to it. Are those people still around? Does keeping that particular tradition actually serve any of the players of today? If so, FANTASTIC! But if not, then we are doing a disservice by preventing a change.
I know this may sound absolutely blasphemous to some people who are truly invested in tradition. And please understand, I am NOT advocating scrapping them. Rather, I think they need to be qualified to see if they still are useful to the players of today. This is an important thing for us to do. Why? To provide an opportunity for the younger and newer players to leave THEIR mark and THEIR legacy. I was given that opportunity when I was younger. But as the SCA ages, I feel that many of these opportunities to do something new or different are blocked. And when a newer person comes into the club only to be told, “no” over and over; why in the world would they want to stay? It is not their job to keep something alive just because somebody came up with an idea 30 years ago and wants it to continue until the end of time.
So I return now to the initial question I asked. Who owns the SCA? Yes, we all do, in many ways. But the future of the SCA belongs to those who will be around. Will I be around in ten years? Twenty years? I don’t know. Will it be the “job” of people in ten or twenty years to keep doing the things that I came up with as a matter of tradition? Or will it be their job to look at the game and help it grow and evolve to make it theirs?
I believe it is important for those of us who are “old-timers” to be open-minded. When it comes to tradition, I believe we should spend less time guarding it, and more time explaining it. WHY do we do things in a particular way? What is the reason that it started? Is it really cool and unique? Is it based on historical precedent? Does it reflect an important part of the culture of the locale? Who knows? Maybe the younger people will say, “Oh WOW that is cool! That sends chills up my spine, at how cool it is!” which pretty much means that have bought into keeping it alive. Or…they may give you that blank-stare look that communicates that the concept just simply does not resonate with them. And ya know what? That’s ok. Just because the thing really no longer serves the people today does NOT strike it from history and does NOT mean it wasn’t cool in its time. But the SCA does evolve. Regalia is retired over time as we acquire cooler, nicer, more authentic, better regalia. People retire from the SCA. Events come and go. We learn new things. People have new ideas. And when we say, “NO!” as a knee-jerk, we run the risk of damaging our own growth.
If you take nothing else from this long-winded post, I hope it is this. The future of the SCA and ALL of the SCA’s traditions relies upon the young. And the choice of keeping those traditions going really is up to them. If we drive them off because of our refusal to even consider change, our traditions will die when we die. But if we educate the young about our traditions, and then give THEM the chance to invest themselves in tradition, or be part of their evolution, the traditions may very well continue even after we are gone.
Think about that, old-timers. Think long and hard about that.
