Unformed musing on events

[msmemory_archive]

This is a not-quite-yet-gelled thought....

When I first joined the SCA, events were Big Deals. The rest of the month(s) would slide past in a mix of completely trivial mundane committments that all mushed together, punctuated by panicky sessions making new garb, or shopping for cheap feastgear, or cooking (badly documented) picnic fare. Then the Event would happen. I'd be there all day, it would be the focus of my month.

Lately, without gafiating in the least, I've discovered that the mush of mundane stuff doesn't take care of itself quite as readily. I can't just dash out leaving the laundry or bills untended, or the gas tank empty. I need to sleep more than 4-5 hours a night, too.

Plus, there are now multiple nearby events every month (example: within the last two months I've been to four - King Lear, Coronation, the masked ball, and May Day - and this wasn't a heavy schedule). So the breathless focus on The Upcoming Event is rather diminished when there are so many.

I'd like to get back some of the excitement about going to events. Not by cutting back to going only once a month, however. I still enjoy events a lot, so it's not a search for gratification from eventing. Yet I don't want to give up those quiet Saturdays when I have time to tend the house, make a complex dinner, see a movie, take a walk along the Charles River.... Maybe I'm just becoming a fogey after all. Hmmmmm......

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's fogeyism; it's normal, and happens on a fairly regular basis to everyone. Some folks have it on a short periodicity, some on a decade-or-more cycle. My usual advice when friends tell me this sort of thing is to take up a new interest within the SCA.

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

I go through this about every few years - the whole "why am I doing this again?"

I'd say enjoy your weekends however you want to - if that involves an event, cool. If it involves washing dishes, so be it. It's *your* free time after all.

[tpau]

if you make new garb, you will have more of an anticipation fo rhte events, as you will get to wear said new garment.

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

Sad to say, I think part of the problem is that you've done it all these years, and so your marginal utility for the next event is just smaller than it used to be. For myself, all the really seminal memories in the SCA are from my first few years - "When the world was young" is how I think of it internally. In my case, it was particularly acute, because I knew as I was doing it that these days would not come again.

The solution I have always tried for is that when I do things in the SCA, I try to do Something Wonderful. I am pretty sure I glazed over the eyes of many of the actors in Lear by constantly trying to convince them that we were going to make a production that was Good, and Beautiful, and True, and would touch the lives of our audience in ways they couldn't imagine. But I think it helped keep us all on track, and mostly excited - I know that for myself, questing for something extra made it worth the trip, even if I didn't completely succeed.

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Definately. And it's true on a larger level as well.

One of the reasons syrrichard has speculated that attendance at events in Dun Carraig has dropped in recent years is that nothing NEW has been done; the group is stuck in a rut. We're trying to encourage people to try new stuff... it hasn't always gone as well as we'd like.

Events and such ...

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

I think we all go through a bit of ennui when it comes to going to events. It's something we do, it's something we have to do, we know we'll have fun, but ...

Heck, I felt a bit like that for Beltane, and that was the first camping event we'd been to in awhile. Once there and set up, however, we had a grand time (including the domus entropius chuckle hut ... we laughed a lot ...).

Sometimes just getting the impetus to get out of the house is hard. However, it's worth it, most of the time at least, or we wouldn't still be playing this silly game. All that rambling probably doesn't help much, but there you go. <g>

[kfitzwarin.livejournal.com]

Hm. I ponder on this too. It's funny, in our little corner of Drachenwald, there are/were few enough events (and travel was sufficiently entertaining to arrange) that events became "important" to me again and there was much prep and organization and excitement around attending. Here/now, there's more everyday stuff in my life, and not so much enthusiasm for going/seeing/doing. Having a real job and house and the like certainly slows me down too.

I'm inclined to agree that this can be remedied by a foray into a new project (at least to some degree), but I think it's also natural to let it happen and then get back to it when you feel inspired (or volunteer for something - a lot of my attendance these days is caused by helium-hand, which gets me there and then I usually have a good time, versus dreading going.)

And yes, I'm a fogey, and I admit it. I usually try to embrace my inner fogey, but then there's things like the King of the Mid's recent foray into stupidity that just fry me and make me wonder if the Good Old Days really existed.