Sleeping Wisdom

So I downloaded a sleep tracking app earlier this year, and one of the things it does is record talking and ambient noise. Last night I was apparently coaching in my sleep. There were a couple instances of "That's good, that's good, and.. there it is!" Which are things I mumble while watching a student in their free practice time at the end of a session. 

Apparently I was discussing mounted archery saddles, as well: "There's modular, and flatback: depends what you need."

But my favourite bit was the words to live by: "If the basics are correct, you can get as fancy as you want." Very true, and pertinent to all the areas I am working on in myself.

There has been a lot of talk in my historical rec group about paths to peerage, as the Board has opted to create a missile weapon Peerage, and noted that this would include certain aspects of equestrian. I've been reading along with the discussions on the equestrian groups on FB, and participating when I feel I can add something yo ghe discussion. It's ked to some very solid evaluations of what an Eq peerage would look like, including a solid, in depth discussion of a "correct" seat, and even some specific case advice. It is insidious to note that I tick literally all the boxes of what should constitute a Peer in Eq on any list that was posted, especially the teaching, training and building aspects. I wonder if anyone recognises that? If so, I have to wonder where I'm lacking.

It's probably presentation. 

It is a very good thing I redirected my energy in the SCA to enjoyment rather than following a Path, especially one that at times, feels like scorched earth. 

 /sigh.

Thumb Draw

Got in a teensy bit of practice on my no look thumb draw yesterday. I should fo more to really lock it away, but it is making sense, which makes me really happy. So is the back draw, so now I just have to knuckle down and whip up a back quiver. Whee!

I have done some back yard practice, and am feeling quite good about my three finger draw, but definitely need to do more ground practice of my thumb draw.

In other areas, I've re-thiught mu room, shifted my correspondence area to beside my computer desk, and have started the process of slimming down all that extra stuff. I feel like I am about half done,  but it might be less than that. If I can take 15 minutes a day and just clear one shelf or drawer, I could build a habit of blitzing till actually done. 

Work is work. I have to make arrangements with rides that will work better for the schedule when Freya and Rowen leave. Some/hopefully most will be in with Justin, out with either Don or a client. I have to wrestle with my executive dysfunction a lot in regards to this stuff.

Well. All stuff, tbh. 

Flux

Things change, which is pretty much a universal truth. Knowing that doesn't make it easier when they do.

Restart

The first Outreach was a solid success, and while we were tired when we headed home, we had thoughts already about how to make the next one better: if assessed and acceptable, we can offer the participants the chance to shoot off the horse; we need extra staff/volunteers: two people doing all the setup, teaching, talking and teardown is very much a lot; we need to make some minor adjustments to our schedule to make it flow better; the hats work, but we need to do the embroidery option instead of the heat patches...

Lou and I are a really good team, and she inspires me to improve everything about myself, without any pressure, just by being herself. 

It's Monday, and I should sleep a bit before I try and wrestle my room into a livable shape before our insurance inspection in Tuesday. I have work at the farm from 11:30, then a lesson at 4:30 before I have to rush home and teach online at 7:30. Whee!

The Diggers, and Repossession of Commons by the People

Local landowners, alarmed by the actions of this group, and their assurance that their numbers were soon to grow, as they were offering to feed folk who came to work on the land, “to ten thousand in five days”, called on the New Model Army to help oust the radicals, but after interviewing Winstanley and a few others, the commander of the force sent in response decided it was a civil matter, and that the landowners should deal with it through the courts. However, the ability of the landowners to call on the military for assistance spooked some of the initial founders, and the occupation of St George’s Hill did not last.

It is an understanding of Western culture that land can be owned, and a great deal of the hereditary structures built into our culture were based on this concept. Throughout the Middle Ages, a mostly agrarian society, villages had lands held “in common” where poorer folk could graze their animals, but from an early time, this land was not farmable, as in, crops could not be grown there. In later centuries, through the process of “enclosures”, the commons became part of the local feudal responsibility, and the land became controlled and no longer part of the common weal.

In 1649, at a time of tremendous civil unrest in England, with war combining with several bad harvest years, starvation loomed. A group of religious radicals, who had named themselves the True Levellers, took possession of St George’s Hill, part of the commons of Weybridge, in Surrey, and began to plant crops in order to offer succor to the starving smallfolk. Their activities on the Hill led to them being nicknamed the Diggers, and this is the name they have worn down through history.

Led by radical writer Gerrard Winstanley, the core group of fifteen men tried to create a grass-roots movement toward the abolition of property, and the creation of a utopian society more closely interrelating man and his environment. Some of their tenets, published in Winstanley’s manifesto¹, included public health insurance and early socialist priorities, such as communal ownership of property. Aspects of their philosophy and reasoning could be traced back as far as the Peasant’s Revolt of the 1300’s.

The Diggers were not permitted to defend themselves at the trial, and lost. The work at St George’s Hill was abandoned, but several other satellite farms were started over the next year, and the movement gained some traction with the initial assistance of a local landowner at one of the new locations. He quickly turned against them however, and became the leading edge of property owner resistance. In the end, the movement petered out in the face of continuing legal challenges to their position.

The Diggers absolutely inspired a faction within the first hippie communes in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury Park, as well as numerous other expressions of similar sentiments in the next several decades. The establishment of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in 2020 may be seen as a distaff descendant of the Digger’s ideas, although missing some of the nuanced thought and religious focus of Winstanley’s writing.

Citations:

1. The text of of the Digger’s various manifestos can be found at Project Gutenberg. The reading can be heavy, but it is informative. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17480/17480-h/17480-h.htm

A Declaration by the Diggers of Wellingborough: http://www.rogerlovejoy.co.uk/philosophy/diggers/diggers3.htm

Website of the 1960’s Digger movement, with a great multimedia index of the original English Diggers: https://www.diggers.org/overview.htm

A True, Black Knight

A True, Black Knight

by Briana Cassia, Lions Gate, An Tir

(for the SMASH, Team SwanSong)

Morien was the son of Aglamore de Galis, who was the eldest son of King Pellinore, and brother to Percival. (It is posited circumstantially that in earlier versions, Morien was Perceval’s get, which parentage was redacted with the growing trope of Perceval’s inviolable virginity, but such arguments are beyond the scope of this paper.) When Arthur sent the Knights in search of Lancelot, Aglovale found himself in Moorish lands, and became enamored of a princess (unfortunately unnamed, so far as I have found). While he did promise to marry her and they consummated their betrothal, Aglovale then left to continue his quest, leaving his fiancee to bear his child and raise him as befitted a Prince of Christendom. When she was disinherited of her lands, she sends her son to seek his father to redress that wrong. It should be noted that Moriaen and Moryan, both spellings found in the extant Middle Dutch text, are synonyms for the Moors themselves. As well, Saint Maurice was a favoured saint of that region during the Middle Ages, and was as dark of skin as the literary figure of Sir Morien.

Morien is described as being very large and with very dark skin: “He was all black, even as I tell ye: his head, his body, and his hands were all black, saving only his teeth.”¹ Indeed, he has trouble trying to get across the sea to Britain, as the sailors were made afraid by his dark skin and huge frame, and thought him a devil, so he could find no passage. At the same time, it is remarked how well-formed he is, how beautiful, as only the flower of chivalry may be seen to be. “...his head, which was black as pitch; that was the fashion of his land--Moors are black as burnt brands. But in all that men would praise in a knight was he fair, after his kind. Though he were black, what was he the worse? In him was naught unsightly.”¹

Of the several “fatherless son” tropes seen in the Arthurian mythos, Morien’s case is better justified than most, and has as happy an ending as these romances can: he succeeds in finding his father after a series of adventures with a few named Knights, including Lancelot and Gawain. Aglovale and Morien together return to the Moorish lands of his birth to succor his mother and regain her lost kingdom. She appears to have been a Christian, as Morien was raised in the faith shared with the other Knights of Arthur’s court, and is heard to call upon God, which reassures Gawain that he is no devil, however tall and black he is.

It is interesting to note that Morien is but a youth when he comes to find his father “...he was taller by half a foot than any knight who stood beside him, and as yet was he scarce more than a child”, but already is so ferocious a warrior that he could cut a spear flung towards him in two with one great stroke, “as if it were a reed”, which reminds this equestrian historian of the Turkish mounted martial game of the Reed Chop, which we play in the SCA.

Sources:

1. All citations in italics were taken from this text, a modern retelling into prose. No obvious liberties taken with the text, but much more accessible to read in this format. Ancient Texts Library (Online): https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/morien.html, by Jessie Weston.

Middle Dutch text, with side-notes. The Google-provided English translation is shaky for a quick read, but one can tease out more meaning if the time is taken. https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_mor001mori01_01/_mor001mori01_01_0008.php

Online article listing several famous Medieval people of colour: https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/06/01/moors-saints-knights-kings-african-presence-medieval-renaissance-europe/

Image source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/not-all-knights-round-table-were-white-180949361/

The Line is Hot!

Our first event as Borderline under our belts, and the fun is underway. I have a long to-do list, but I am making sure I have the time to do it all. A bit of work every couple days, and we'll be rolling along great guns.

I did get a couple of arrows off on Saturday, and my trust in my form and my physical awareness just seems to grow. My wrist was no problem, even though I shot my higher poundages. I will pick up a bow every day this week: need to make it a part of my daily again. I always enjoy it, and in refreshes my energy, so I need to push myself to it more consistently.

A walk in the woods to stump shoot would also be fun. And I need to get Josh going, too, and get everyone else back on track with scheduled practices. Whee!