I haven't posted here in some time, and I do apologize. After the announcement of my elevation, the duties I took on in various SCA roles ate much of my time, as did the mundane responsibilities I have to uphold.
And then there was the pandemic, and the bigger concerns were surviving when assignments, appearances and everything about my mundane job disappeared. Surviving has been the utmost priority for myself and my family.
What's kept me gong is the friendships that have been forged through nearly three decades in the SCA - just simple check-ins, mailings, recipe shares, questions answered back and forth, all bits of life to show proof of living, even if it's not SCA related. The boxes and bins packed for Gulf Wars have been relocated out of the way, projects put up for the time being. The hobby we enjoy took a backseat to the day-to-day work of adjusting to this new and (hopefully) temporary normal.
The sudden shock of our involuntary lifestyle changes has worn off. Six months have passed, and outside of some martial practices just approved by our Crown today, there will be no official events until February or later, as deemed by the Board of Directors after much careful consideration and input from the populace. There's still too much at stake without a vaccine, particularly for an organization with a heady number of older participants who may be more endangered by the COVID-19 virus.
Our membership has not all remained dormant, From the numerous in-garb dance performances each kingdom rallied around, to video how-tos, online lessons and even a virtual Pennsic, the SCA manages to keep in motion as a whole.
This isn't an easy time by any means. Politics in the mundane world have stirred up tensions by people who now imagine themselves on sides, even though we are all citizens of our countries (for those who come to this without SCA knowledge, we are members of a worldwide club with nearly 30,000 paid members and perhaps at least that many who participate without those member credentials) and fellow human beings. The pandemic's wrath has infected tens of millions and killed hundreds of thousands around the globe, damaging economies, causing job losses and financial difficulties, and leaving many scrambling to cover the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter. Natural disasters such as fires across western America and successive hurricanes striking the states along the Gulf Coast. The death of George Floyd while in police custody ignited protests around the globe calling for an end to police brutality, and those protests were countered by others for a variety of reasons. It's a time of great stress, to say the least.
The SCA itself has gone through some navel-gazing and recognition of faults these past few years as well. A succession of moments, errors or intended, have been amplified across our Society in ways heretofore unimagined, thanks to the prevalence and saturation of social media in our recreated medieval world. Many of these actions, which I will not enumerate here, would have at one point in time been mere rumors, shared months or even years after the fact. The effect of mass communication spread is an almost instant availability of knowledge, regardless of distance.
A short time ago, the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. addressed many of these issues brought to its Board of Directors with the creation of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. I will not parse its mission; rather, I'll share it here thusly, as included on this page of the SCA.org site:
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Office is committed to promoting the values of inclusion throughout the SCA. The focus is equity, which is just and fair inclusion into an organization in which all can participate, prosper, benefit, and reach their full potential.,
The DEI office develops activities and training to cultivate a climate in which all members are treated fairly and able to thrive in a welcoming atmosphere. This work is compliant with nondiscrimination laws, ADA laws, the SCA mission statement, and our governing documents, especially our policies on harassment, bullying, and hate speech.
There are now DEI officers in every kingdom. My opinion on the office is one of support; it is one born of our times, where bullying, racism, sexism and ableism has come to the forefront of our mundane worlds as being in need of addressing. We are, as a Society, a microcosm of the world we live in.
On June 2nd, 2020, the SCA Officer of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Baroness Zahra Tesfaye, posted a letter to the corporate website, concerning Our Core Values. You may read it here.
I share all of that information to set the scene for the current kerfluffle. A person by the Facebook name of Ogier L'Armurier took it upon himself to join kingdom Facebook lists across the Known World. On the morning of Wednesday, September 16, 2020, this individual posted a letter attributed to Countess Brithwynn Artur of Trimaris on his personal Facebook page, then shared it to, as far as I can tell, every kingdom. Within two hours, he had locked comments on the shared posts. Here in Gleann Abhann, the post and a counterpost were both deleted from the kingdom list.
The response, SCA-wide, has been considerable.
It has also been heartbreaking.
I have watched responses pop onto my Facebook wall, comments added to posts, and blog posts shared with all sorts of outpouring opinion on the matter. It has been wrenching to see friends state they're done with the SCA, the very organization where our friendships blossomed, because of emotions that are being churned by these times. I have lost the connections of friends on my social media platforms as they suddenly and with deliberation cull those associated from the SCA from their friends lists.
Yesterday, I had decided to turn my back on the drama of the moment because my current situation demands rest and recuperation. But one of my newer friends posted today his anguish at the drama. And I found myself typing a response. This is that response.
I think it bears pointing out - one individual who is not a member of our kingdom, took it upon himself to join the Facebook group of every Kingdom in the Known World, then posted a letter from another individual on his wall and shared it to all of those lists. Within two hours, he cut off responses on said posts. While the letter came from a countess who lives in Trimaris, it was one individual out of Calontir -Cape Girardeau, Missouri - who completed this action, presumably to rile up members of the SCA. One. Person.
Is our union, our Society, our family so fragile that it might be rendered asunder by a single troll? Friendships of months or friendships of decades, dissolved by such an obvious ploy to damage us?
We are at a point of unique stress and hardship across our lands. A pandemic, lost jobs, financial hardships, natural disasters and the very fact of not being able to visit with each other, face to face at a scheduled event - all have upped the level of our stress and may have reduced our abilities to give each other the grace our patience normally allows us.
We are better than this. Things are qoing to eventually improve. I advise us each to step back, recall what it is that has brought us together and kept us returning, and hold on to it. If you need to step back from the churned rumblings right now, it is ok. Better to take that breath than demolish the good found in an organization that has held on these 54 years.
Maybe I was hasty to post that. But frankly, I;m tired. Tired of putting off checking the kingdom list to see how folks are holding on because I don't want to feel that uncomfortable ache in my gut of online fighting over such things. Tired of feeling like I can't really post anything at all without judgement. Tired of seeing mundane political conflicts yanked into the one hobby that provides an escape from the same political conflicts in the real world. Tired of... well...
You see, I've been at a point of SCA burnout for some time now. My desire to see deeds taken up and done well has overridden my own need for rest. This Gulf Wars in particular was going to be a challenge of scheduling, responsibilities, childcare and transportation. When it was abruptly cancelled, and all the mundane responsibilities I had quickly discharged, I collapsed. I already knew I was about to take a break from event attendance and office holding so I could concentrate on keeping us financially afloat.
It would, if times were as they were in the past, be a good point to reconsider SCA life as a whole and perhaps take a hiatus. I would have likely spent a couple of months with the occasional check-in on what was happening to see what was going on, and perhaps even finished up my A&S project to show at Kingdom A&S. A breath, and then a return, because the SCA is my social club.
Instead... 2020 happened.
And believe me, I understand and support the need to address these issues. I do, and of wrongs done in the past. I have watched fellow members of the LGBTQ community find themselves uncomfortable with fighting in the SCA and with cutting remarks made that seemed innocuous to the person saying such remarks. I have in the past brought Black friends to events who, when approached to come to the next event, graciously shared "it's not my thing" and only years later, when these conversations came up, admitted they didn't feel like they had a place here. I've had my own #metoo moments, faced up to the individuals who instigated them, received counseling to address the way I countered my self-blame with reframing the past situation as something acceptable to others. And I've continued to push back against moments of sexism that one who's an outspoken, audacious woman encounters when dealing with an evolving group.
My response has always been to stick with things, because I believe change in the organization can only come from within. I still believe that, though I've had my own heartaches over the years, some of no one's fault, some at the hands and mouths of others. I've persisted, because the cost of leaving has meant deserting the one community that has welcomed me for 29 years with all my flaws and oddness.
I still believe in The Dream. And watching the comments fly between different individuals close to me, individuals who greet each other with hugs, who shake hands after each good fight, who stand side by side washing dishes after feast and who teach and are taught the many skills and arts fostered in the Society, shakes me. I doubt that many of these words would be hurled back and forth were we all able to sit down and break bread together again.
It makes me angry that there are people in our Society more interested in foaming derision into divisions, loudly, at a distance, than in attempting to fix things from the inside. It would be so easy for our corporation to be dissolved, should care be forsaken in its maintenance. And regardless the problems that are being addressed today, without our membership, the SCA would not exist.
These are my opinions. They matter not a wee bit in the order of things outside of my house and household, no matter my rank. My actions, however, will; be to continue to do the things I can to help hold the Society together as best I can, and to perform good works, speak and act on kindness as I can.
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