[Mid] Award Theory

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, Lord Caedmon Wilson wrote:

> The problem is not with awards themselves, it is how some people end
> up treating them. They become a focus for some, a means of some
> sliver of power that they may not hold in the real world. And then
> they try to lord this "power" over others, as if everyone would bow
> down to the title, regardless of the person.
>

I was taught a lesson some years ago: changing the outside doesn't change
the inside. The morning after an award, or a wedding, or a new job,
you wake up the same person.

A schmuck with an award is still a schmuck. And we may respect the award,
because that's the game we play, but that doesn't mean we respect the
recipient any more than we did (and we might respect the Crown who
bestowed the award less...)

> Awards can be a nice "thank you" or "good job". Not everyone is out
> to climb the ladder, but it only takes the 5% causing the trouble to
> ruin the fun for the other 95%.
>
I think the fighting orders have it right. If you ask most fighters if
they want ot be knights someday, they'll say, "Yes." And they understand
that to mean, "I want to be that good a fighter. I want to have that kind
of courtesy and grace so enforced in my behavior that it becomes that
natural." They want to grow until they _are_ a knight. A good goal.

If you ask most of the rest of us if we want to be peers, you get some
sort of self-effacing shuffle. "Common wisdom" has said that "The easiest
way to never get a Pelican is to announce you're working to get one."

The essential difference, I think, is between _being_ a Knight and
_getting_ a Pelican. Speaking for myself, I hope to one day be a Laurel,
to have the skill, the courtesy, the dedication, the teaching ability,
and all the rest.

> I am grateful for the two kingdom awards I have been given, an AoA and
> a Dragon's Barb. They do not define me, though.
>
As a matter of fact, you help define them, Caedmon. When someone asks
herself, "I think that person might be a candidate for the Dragon's Barb,"
it is your example she'll look to, to see if her candidate measures up.

--Christian d'Hiver
  who's been thinking about this a lot since Saturday

From: Chris Mortika <cmortika@rocky.itasca.net>
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Received on Wed Oct 20 11:18:02 2004