Saturday, April 9, 2016

Improving the game? Or snobbery?

One of the things I've been struggling with the last few weeks is that balance between wanting to improve my personal/local "game" and not wanting to be a snobbish asshole who demands elitism. Much of the argument is internal to be fair, but when it starts to affect my outside worldview I worry about crossing the line.

I've been on a personal kick to improve my game for the past few weeks. So much of my fun has been in losing myself in another time/place, but as I've played longer in the SCA it's become tricky. A lot of these limitations are mine, where I focused so much on food I did not develop as well in other areas and those moments began to remove me from the fun. I grew self-conscious of my patched together miss-matched outfits, I was embarrassed at my lazy attempts at heraldry, I couldn't find my personas way out of a paper bag with hazily touched upon studies. I realized this was something that was troubling me, and I have finally started taking the steps I needed to up my game.

Come Fall Coronation I should have a total of 6 new outfits for every occasion, and flags of heraldry to represent myself and my home proudly. I'm converting my personal kits to have a more period look, putting my spices into jars and looking into transporting my gear for all seasons in period style containers. I'm really excited to bring myself to a better personal game, and that in turn has inspired me to share more of what I love and help others raise their games as well.  But in expanding my view, I've noticed myself feeling almost...snobbish or frustrated with others who don't seem to want to even try. And I try not to let it affect me too much, but still...

A conversation in regards to feasts brought this up again today. We strive to have a period presence in everything we do, but with food it always seem to be a struggle. Why? I just don't understand it, and I get frustrated when I see menus which are not even pretending to look period, or hear people telling me I shouldn't care so much about it. I do care, and I get frustrated that so many others don't. But on the other hand, I haven't gotten a bunch of crap for how I've looked or camped if it wasn't up to par with the others around me.

I'm just stuck in a loss as I puzzle this, how to address it. I now the first step is to improve my own game, but how to I enhance and improve the game around me? How do I help others make those next steps, even in thins they perhaps dot see a need to do? 

Am I working to improve the game, or am I just a snob?