Re: [Mid] "Inappropriate" belts

Greetings--

I look at dependent belts as reflective on the Peer who gave them, rather
than on seeing "apprentices", "proteges" and "squires" as groups with an
identity their own. If one of my apprentices does something stupid, it
might reflect badly on me, but I don't think it necessarily reflects badly
on other apprentices--even if it involves using the belt to "pull rank." If
one of my apprentices did this, I'd
be wearing the hairshirt for weeks in penance, embarassed that I didn't
teach them better.

When you wear a white belt, Laurel wreath, or Pelican medallion, you can
reasonably expect because these are regalia as defined by Society law, the
person under them will be taken as a representative of their Order. Peers,
in particular, are held to high standards of behavior, as well as excellence
in their field.

On the other hand, the only thing a dependent belt symbolizes is that there
is a relationship between two people. I could, if I really wanted to, take
anyone as an apprentice--even the most snotty, pretentious, know it all
goober, even a convicted criminal. The fact that I had bad taste in
apprentices would not mean all apprentices would suffer for my errors the
way a bad apple Peer can reflect on their entire Order.

This is one of the things about the belt thing that bugs me. None of the
dependent relationships are ranks. They are not "earned" in any sort of
regular fashion--some folks take dependents only after watching them for a
long period time, or when they're "ready" and already have achieved a fair
amount of success in their field; others take dependents on the spur of the
moment or because they're great pals; others enjoy being able to mentor and
train someone from the extreme novice level.

Being overly concerned about belt colours seems to me to be treating those
belts as a rank--which I think encourages the kind of rank-pulling bad
behaviour that most of us find really annoying.

Cheers--
Nicolaa de Bracton

From: "Susan Carroll-Clark" <sclark@chass.utoronto.ca>
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Received on Thu Jan 8 23:44:55 1998