From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject: Re: awarding awards
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:32:39 GMT

In article <C17Lwt.75r@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes) writes:
>In article <1993Jan20.233815.32417@watson.ibm.com> mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh Mittleman) writes:
>>
>>That's one way to think about it, but it makes me cringe.  In my mind, one
>>of the first qualifications of any peer is understanding herself.  If you
>>don't know your own strengths and limitations, how can you possibly advise
>>the Crown on other people's?  If a new peer has no idea that she is ready to
>>be a peer, then she has no understanding of the nature of her new estate; I
>>think that means that she isn't ready for peerage.
>>
>
>I think that this process of understanding has several stages:
>
>1) Working hard "for the award".
>2) Sulking because you didn't get the award after you thought you did
>enough work.
>3) Realizing that you enjoy what you were doing to get the award for its
>own sake, and that awards are silly. (Or, realizing that all you wanted
>was the award, and the work isn't worth it.)
>4) Working hard "for the fun of it"
>5) Getting the award after you had forgotten you ever wanted it at all.
>
>At least, this is the way I've seen it work. Most people with the
>"Laurel wanna-be" syndrome either quit or mellow out at stage 2. As a
>not-gonna-be-a-peer with Peer friends, I have noticed that the Laurels
>only start noticing candidates at stage 4 after they've mellowed a lot,
>and have REALLY learned their art (or for Pelicans really worked their
>butts off).

I think I can address this (indeed--I think I've done so before).
Elevation to the Peerage is *not* a 'merit badge'.

Surprised?  Don't be.

As Hilary of Serendip is fond of saying, "The SCA doesn't *make*
Peers, it merely recognizes them."  There are many aspects to a Peer
besides doing A&/orS for a Laurel, Service above and beyond the call
of duty for a Pelican, or fighting prowess for the Chivalry.  The
other qualifications are all spelled out in Corpora.  The qualities
I've listed are *neccesary*, but not *sufficient*.  I will grant that
Kings and Peerage Councils make mistakes, but what I've described is
the ideal.  What tends to get really noticed are those folks that
really *are* Peers, but few people other than the Peers have noticed
this, so that when the Peerage is announced, there is a great slapping
of foreheads as people say to themselves and each other--"Wow!  That's
right!  She really *is* a Peer!  It's so obvious--why didn't I see it
before?"

As this ties to other discussions, sometimes the person really does
not recognize within themselves that this is the case.  We have a
really astonishing number of people that are quite self-effacing.

	--Hal

        Hal Ravn, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)

Nothing in this missive constitutes an act or opinion of the Lord High
Constable of the Kingdom of the West unless otherwise explicitly stated.
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |            You!
510-823-5447                 |    Out of the Gene Pool!
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |
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