On death, and dying
It’s kind of strange; planning your own death… Even if it was just in jest.
This weekend past, I stepped down as the Landed Baron of my local SCA chapter. It was a great opportunity for schtick, and owing as to how I am a great lover of such, I really wanted to play it up. My Baroness just wanted to “walk away” and that’s fine, but I’m too much of the ham to just walk off from a gig like this.
I did have a “death” planned, but the week before the event was a rough one, SCA politally speaking, and, upon reflection, it didn’t seem like such a good idea to have my successor knock me off… While it was silly (very silly), it would give ammo to some folks currently engaged in a snipe hunt/pointless vendetta. No, I won’t go into details. It isn’t worth it, and it is, hopefully, over.
The “plan” was to have me decide that I wasn’t going to step down after all, and my successor, who was currently my herald, would squeeze an orange into my mug, thus “poisoning” me. (For those who've been hiding under a rock for the last 40 years, I am highly allergic to oranges...) The orange was brought up in the form of a “parting gift fruit basket” from the Barony. The Baroness was not in on the gag (few were – I wanted it to be a surprise) tried to remove the orange (it was fake – a good fake) from the basket, but I quietly told her not to. It worked out well, though, as it pointed out the fact that there was an orange in there. I made a distraction while the next Baron, quite theatrically, picked out the orange and made a show of squeezing it into my mug (behind my back, of course).
Well, as I mentioned, it was a rough week, and making a “villain” out of my successor would not have been such a great plan. I came up with an additional bit of schtick that no one knew about. I called him out and allowed him to turn over his office of herald to his deputy, and then dismissed him. I had an arrow stashed behind my throne and a squire to put it into my hand properly at the right time. I claimed knowledge of the poisoned mug and said that I was no fool to fall for such a silly trick, and then the arrow “struck”. “You’re right… honey… Four years… is long enough…”, I cried, as I got up and staggered out of court. The crowd seemed to like it, which was the intent. My lovely bride, however, didn’t take to kindly to it… Actually, she’s got a great sense of humor, but I caught her by surprise…
The rest of the day was spent being… ignored. People were well intentioned, but wrong. Folks thought they were doing me a favor and leaving me alone, but the end result was that I felt shunned. It seemed that I was some kind of anathema and people went out of their way to avoid me. Not intending to be vain, or anything, but it really sucked. I am a people person, and just came from a position that garnered me a lot of attention. Going from “a lot” to “none whatsoever” was a bit painful.
Sheeps had tried to prepare me, but until you actually experience it, you really just can’t understand. She’d arranged to have some friends come up and spend the event with me, to help ease the feeling, but "S" was very sick and couldn’t come, and his wife "B" could only come for a little while, before driving back home to take care of him. I understood, as you can’t really help being sick, but they were sorely missed. Marius was going to come, too, but ended up with car trouble and couldn’t make it. It had been a day that I was truly looking forward to, but it the reality was much more dismal.
I realize that the day belonged to the new Baron and Baroness, and folks believed themselves to be doing me a favor by giving me space, but they were shutting me off from the one thing that I thrive on – attention. Don’t get me wrong; I am not an attention whore who must be in the spotlight at all times, but I am, at least, an attention slut, and need, at minimum, some affirmation.
We’d have left early, but we’d already made plans to sit in on feast, and I’m glad we did. I don’t know how she managed to pull that off with the budget she had, but it was amazing. Food galore! And a ton of meat! The head cook and bottle-washer did an awesome job. After feast, I was too stuffed, and too tired to drive home, so we hit the cabin and crashed.
Sunday was a rainy, hazy day, so we packed up quickly and headed home, picking up donuts on the way. Comfort food, dontcha know…
All and all, it was kind of a “meh” weekend. It could have been a lot better, but, on the other hand, it could have blown up and been a lot worse. All told, I am relieved that is over, and I can concentrate on being a regular schmoe again.
This weekend past, I stepped down as the Landed Baron of my local SCA chapter. It was a great opportunity for schtick, and owing as to how I am a great lover of such, I really wanted to play it up. My Baroness just wanted to “walk away” and that’s fine, but I’m too much of the ham to just walk off from a gig like this.
I did have a “death” planned, but the week before the event was a rough one, SCA politally speaking, and, upon reflection, it didn’t seem like such a good idea to have my successor knock me off… While it was silly (very silly), it would give ammo to some folks currently engaged in a snipe hunt/pointless vendetta. No, I won’t go into details. It isn’t worth it, and it is, hopefully, over.
The “plan” was to have me decide that I wasn’t going to step down after all, and my successor, who was currently my herald, would squeeze an orange into my mug, thus “poisoning” me. (For those who've been hiding under a rock for the last 40 years, I am highly allergic to oranges...) The orange was brought up in the form of a “parting gift fruit basket” from the Barony. The Baroness was not in on the gag (few were – I wanted it to be a surprise) tried to remove the orange (it was fake – a good fake) from the basket, but I quietly told her not to. It worked out well, though, as it pointed out the fact that there was an orange in there. I made a distraction while the next Baron, quite theatrically, picked out the orange and made a show of squeezing it into my mug (behind my back, of course).
Well, as I mentioned, it was a rough week, and making a “villain” out of my successor would not have been such a great plan. I came up with an additional bit of schtick that no one knew about. I called him out and allowed him to turn over his office of herald to his deputy, and then dismissed him. I had an arrow stashed behind my throne and a squire to put it into my hand properly at the right time. I claimed knowledge of the poisoned mug and said that I was no fool to fall for such a silly trick, and then the arrow “struck”. “You’re right… honey… Four years… is long enough…”, I cried, as I got up and staggered out of court. The crowd seemed to like it, which was the intent. My lovely bride, however, didn’t take to kindly to it… Actually, she’s got a great sense of humor, but I caught her by surprise…
The rest of the day was spent being… ignored. People were well intentioned, but wrong. Folks thought they were doing me a favor and leaving me alone, but the end result was that I felt shunned. It seemed that I was some kind of anathema and people went out of their way to avoid me. Not intending to be vain, or anything, but it really sucked. I am a people person, and just came from a position that garnered me a lot of attention. Going from “a lot” to “none whatsoever” was a bit painful.
Sheeps had tried to prepare me, but until you actually experience it, you really just can’t understand. She’d arranged to have some friends come up and spend the event with me, to help ease the feeling, but "S" was very sick and couldn’t come, and his wife "B" could only come for a little while, before driving back home to take care of him. I understood, as you can’t really help being sick, but they were sorely missed. Marius was going to come, too, but ended up with car trouble and couldn’t make it. It had been a day that I was truly looking forward to, but it the reality was much more dismal.
I realize that the day belonged to the new Baron and Baroness, and folks believed themselves to be doing me a favor by giving me space, but they were shutting me off from the one thing that I thrive on – attention. Don’t get me wrong; I am not an attention whore who must be in the spotlight at all times, but I am, at least, an attention slut, and need, at minimum, some affirmation.
We’d have left early, but we’d already made plans to sit in on feast, and I’m glad we did. I don’t know how she managed to pull that off with the budget she had, but it was amazing. Food galore! And a ton of meat! The head cook and bottle-washer did an awesome job. After feast, I was too stuffed, and too tired to drive home, so we hit the cabin and crashed.
Sunday was a rainy, hazy day, so we packed up quickly and headed home, picking up donuts on the way. Comfort food, dontcha know…
All and all, it was kind of a “meh” weekend. It could have been a lot better, but, on the other hand, it could have blown up and been a lot worse. All told, I am relieved that is over, and I can concentrate on being a regular schmoe again.
posted by Turtle at 11:31 AM
2 Comments:
Sorry I couldn't make it, your dudeness. I would have much preferred being there. I'm also sorry it was such a bummer. I don't understand the leaving you alone part, but then I guess I've been out of the game so long there's a lot I don't get anymore.
S'kewl. It would have been great having you there, but keeping the vee-hickel up and running is more important.
The unintentional shunning isn't really part of "the game". It was just human nature. It been there all along, including the time you were most active - you just weren't ever in a position to notice. Neither was I, until now.
The people actually thought that they were doing me a favor by leaving me alone. It was their mindset that after 4 years of sitting in the big chair, I would want some space. What they didn't understand is that liking attention is the reason I took the coronet in the first place. (Well, that and the fact that the Crown basically told me to...)
They didn't mean any harm, really, but that was the end result.
And you were sorely missed.
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