[MR] To be or not to be.

[Connor Sinclair]

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings
and arrows of outrageous excuses, or to take action
against a sea of inauthenticity, and by opposing, end
them?
To try.
To be more authentic.
Do more; and by attempt at authenticity to say we end
the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that
wounds us, ‘tis a constant devoutly to be hold.
To try
To know.
To Know! Perchance to reach the dream: ay, there’s the
rub;
For in that knowledge of history what dreams may come,
when we have sifted through this way of life, must
give us pause: there’s the respect that makes
understanding of so long ago life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of the
uncaring, the shallow ways, the pangs of slight
regard, the law’s delay, the insolence of office, and
the spurns that inauthenticity merits of the unworthy
takes, when he himself might his silly pants make from
polycotton? 
Who would want to bear, to grunt and sweat under
synthetic materials, and than dread of something
workable, the knowledge of history, from whose lessons
we can learn, strengthens the will and makes us rather
hold those skills we learn than fly into the face of
slick alternatives?
Thus excuse does make cowards of us all:
And thus the native hue of resolution is sick lied
o’er with the pale cast of ill thought and enterprises
of great pith and moment, with this regard their
currents turn awry, and lose the name of action. 

Piglet, in Service to the Dream.  Act III, Scene 1.
William “Two Shakes” Pear

My humble observations:
I wear wool and linen, because they breathe better and
last longer.
I train my body and mind to the histories of combat,
because they work.
I wear my armour to feel how it was like to fight in
such gear, not to be an extra in Star Wars.
I research so that I understand what people went
through.
That which I, and my friends, cannot produce, we
search for. 
I do not expect to be fully outfitted in hearth and
home, armour and clothes, as a prince, but I do
methodically build that what I can, when I can.
I started in kilts of cotton, and silly pants. I
learned that clothes of correct cut and fabric help me
better in all of my medieval endeavors.
I have fallen once from heat, contributed by
non-breathing synthetic materials, never again.
I have stood and fought in Pennsic heat, and not
dropped thanks to my more authentic kits, while
watching cotton damask Elizabethans wilt before my
eyes.
I am not a paragon of authenticity. I am not a study
in all things medieval. I am one who is willing to
accept the successes of the past, rather then scorn
them for the easy way out.
I have seen many who cry, “it is too much time and
effort and money to be authentic” spend more time and
effort and money being inauthentic.
I do not scorn thee, or hold you in slight regard for
inauthenticity, for I only see it as mere apathy.


=====
Connor Sinclair 
 
http://www.caerdubh.com




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