Wonderings

Pennsic.... I really enjoyed it this year. Had a lot of fun, loved watching the battles (even though being in them would have been event better), loved the classes, wandering the streets, chatting with folks, archery, the baronial champion tourney... it was all great. And yet, I wonder if we can really justify the gas for that next year. Before we went, it was easy for me to say that this would be our last year going down there -- we didn't go last year because of the house (renovations/putting on market), so I was more removed from the spectacle. But while we were there, swept up in the whole phenomenon, it was so easy at times to get enthused about getting more rattan weapon supplies, the beautiful ceramics there, and more. In fact I did more shopping at Pennsic than I've done in years... although some of that may have been because if we don't go back, this year was my last year to see a lot of these artisans. Certainly there were times when I'd wonder what we were doing there, mixed in with everything else.

When we got home I was reading more on ice shelves cracking (northern part of Greenland!), ice melt in the arctic (polar bears having to swim farther and farther to get to land or an iceberg, with more of them not surviving), etc. Harder and harder to justify driving very much. As it is we'll be staying home from one of the two family weddings because it's in Indiana. We're considering a trip to Rhinebeck, NY (NY Sheep and Wool Show), which is a day-trip for us (although we could camp out in the back of our van and make it a two-day thing). I don't know, maybe we should skip Rhinebeck... although since L can't make it to Fiber Twist this year, maybe we should do Rhinebeck and then I'll stay home from Fiber Twist. I suppose I could go do some things with friends, as long as we carpool -- no way can I justify driving around in the minivan by myself.

And of course now that I've been to CA this summer, my mom's pressuring for another trip out there. And then apparently there's an expectation that when she goes to do whatever they're doing with giving a lot of her Chinese studies research materials to the Library of Congress, that I'll be there as well. ?? All I'm doing is re-typing the chapters of her book for her -- officially anyway. I also help to keep her on track from time to time, and because the quality of her writing isn't what it was before this past spring's series of health issues, I've taken to correcting some of her writing without asking her anymore -- only if it's something fairly straightforward, of course.

Family expectations and SCA ("family") expectations make for some difficult choices. Well, for me anyway. Part of the Pennsic issue is that Lyle and I are the landed baron and baroness for our local group, and they expect us to be there. Although in the long run I truly believe none of us should be travelling that far, not only because of using all that fossil fuel but also because a large number of us in our group should be saving that money to use on things like, oh, say, food and medicine.

I know a lot of people in or out of the SCA, feel like they deserve annual vacations. Certainly true in the U.S., and probably true in a number of other places. And not only annual vacations but special weekends here and there, etc. I haven't done a lot of research on this, but I think that vacations as they are currently understood, are kind of a new thing. I don't remember reading anything about them in texts from the 1800s anyway. People had "outings", or if someone was ill they were sent to this place or that to restore their health. There were fairs of course, which are sort of fun and work combined for many of the attendees, even today.

Attendance at Pennsic was over 10,000, but down from last year. It's likely to go down more next year. Despite how some things have gone up over the last month or so, winter is coming, and lots of people are worried about how they're going to get through the winter. I hear more of it up here in the hilltowns, maybe because there are more folks struggling here, but more likely because when I lived in Holyoke I spent more time with SCA folks specifically than town folks. I bet those folks aren't thinking about going to holiday fairs or other things similar to SCA events...

Is going to a fair or an event as important as having enough to eat or having electricity and heat? Hardly, and yet some folks will go to these things because they've "earned" it, or they "need" it to de-stress. There are cheaper ways to de-stress, even if getting out of the house is one of the pre-requisites for the de-stressing. I think a lot of it is a social/modern cultural thing, because although my mom "needed" a trip to a big city once in a while (while we lived in Northampton), most of the time her way of de-stressing was to garden or take a long soak in the tub.

In Sharon Astyk's post this week on little things we'd like to have during a long emergency, I mentioned rovings and yarn for spinning and knitting, etc., and someone else said she'd thought of that but didn't mention it because it was useful -- but these activities can also be a good way of de-stressing, relaxing, and be a cause of enjoyment (I have some very cool rovings and yarn!).

If I weren't in the SCA, I wouldn't be traveling as much, for sure. But a lot of my friends are in the SCA, and also L and I currently have responsibilities, not only as baron and baroness, but there's the choir as well. And as hobbies go, it has the possibility of having a smaller carbon footprint than some others.

So I wonder if I can still be involved in the SCA at my current level, when I read about things like what's happening in Greenland, or about all the pollution that's happening everywhere. I could be doing more to cut down on waste, I'm sure. But the SCA's been a part of what I do for more than half my life, and I know if we were to drop out that we'd probably never see some people again. Not because they won't have anything to do with non-SCA people, just that the hobby does tend to eat up available social time... And I do enjoy the time I spend with folks, for sure. But would it be acceptable for us not to go to Pennsic? Would we need to step down? And then there's the fact that we seem to have a dearth of suitable candidates -- no, truly, there doesn't seem to be anyone that would draw a large number of folks to vote for them, besides L and me right now. I don't want the group to suffer, as they're family, in a way. And there are some signs in the SCA of people being more aware of travel issues, so perhaps we can transition to a different way of doing things...

Blargh. That about summons this up for me. Too much going on, too much to do, and so much not getting done. I get overwhelmed sometimes by it all, and end up not doing much at all. Which is better than some years ago when, if feeling overwhelmed, I could literally end up just standing in the middle of a room, unable to figure out what direction to go in first. So at least something gets done. It's the being stuck between worlds (SCA, non-SCA, present and future) that undoes me.