Mission Accomplished

It was well received.

There are times where I am so fortunate to be able to make scrolls. This scroll was for an old friend who has spent years working in kitchens with little to no recognition for all of her service. Partly because she is always in the kitchen and partly because she does not travel outside of her home group. I spent the last few years submitting award recommendation after recommendation, on our Kingdom's web site, for her with no response. I was writing her in for a Keystone, AEthelmearc's AoA level award for service.

Last year I was riding with King Timothy to the house of a dear friend in order to induct him into the Pelican.

Let me just take a moment here to let you know of the high bar of royalty: leaving an event with a caravan of people; driving two and half hours to someone's home; and holding a elevation for a dying man because His Majesty wanted to make sure that Rendel knew that he was a peer of the Society. And then driving two and half hours back to the event. It was an emotional elevation that was streamed so that people at the event could bear witness.

Anyways.... 5 hours in the truck with His Majesty. I had a chance to explain the oversight with the online recommendation and that I had been submitting the request for the last 12 reigns. I explained that Fauna doesn't travel, always cooks at local events, and has taken the lead in creating gluten- and dairy-free food that doesn't take like packing peanuts. I had convinced Him and later spoke with Her Majesty. I had volunteered to make the scroll and They accepted and asked the Kingdom Signet to make it happen.

I had promised not to make an all pun scroll, because those are only for A&S related scrolls.

I didn't say anything about alliteration.

Fauna laughs easily and tends to snort when she laughs too hard.

Let me set the stage. I had let Lord Snori, the Jewel Herald, know that Fauna would not be at court because she will be in the kitchen. When she came up in the docket, someone was sent to get her, and she walked into court without a clue of what was waiting for her. Their Majesties spoke to her and told the court about her gluten-free bread that His Majesty said was tasty. While He was speaking, Lord Snori was trying to read my chicken-scratch hand-writing. Then he noticed the wording taped to the back of the scroll, wording in easy to read in 18pt Aerial font. The he started taking in the words and the look on his face was worth the drive out to Thescorre in the snow.

What happened then was a Royal F-bomb (click here for the text) as Lord Snori read out a scroll with around 50 'F' alliterations. One 'F' after another, with everyone laughing. After reading it, Lord Snori said, "Scroll by THAT GUY! THAT GUY IS TO BLAME!" and pointed at me. At which I stood up and yelled back, "I WAS TOLD NO PUNS!"

Lady Fauna was crying and laughing and crying. Crying, because she was finally recognized for her service. Laughing because of the scroll, and crying because she was laughing so hard.

I live for moments such as these. I am so fortunate that I live in a Kingdom where I can create a unique, customized scroll for a good friend and make 100 people laugh so hard and bring joy to a dear friend.

I caught up with Lady Fauna in the kitchen, where she was still crying after being sand-bagged. "How's your day going, now?" I asked. "Now that they dropped a Royal F-bomb on you?" Which made her laugh.

Mission accomplished.

As a Baron of the Court of AEthelmearc, and as a Master of the Order of the Pelican, it is my job and my responsibility to serve. Part of that service is looking out for the forgotten and overlooked. As a Peer, I can have greater access to Royalty than someone brand new to the SCA. I use that connection for occasions such as Fauna. We should not be doing things, in the SCA, just to get a piece of paper. We should be doing things because we enjoy doing them and it makes the SCA better. However, watching others get rewarded for doing the same work, year after year, tends to disenfranchise and depress people who aren't publicly recognized. Ten years of service without a 'thank you' can drive some people away from the SCA.

All of us need to pay attention to the forgotten and overlooked. Poke your head in the kitchen and see who is there cooking and cleaning. See who stays late to mop the floors. If your Kingdom asks members of various Orders to stand when someone is being added, see who is still sitting but should be added. They don't have to be personal friends. You don't even have to know the person. Ask the local Coronets or seneschal for a name. If you have a coronet or a peerage, it is your job and responsibility to speak up for these people. We can't always have a five hour car ride with the King to talk about our friend, or make awesome scrolls, but we can carry little tokens that we can give to people who inspire us, in private. If someone really does something inspiring, we can use our rank to ask for a few minutes in a Kingdom or Baronial court and give a token and a kind word to someone in front of everyone.