on passion

[ursule]

In a conversation about SCA recognition, ayeshadream wrote:

I had a deep discussion with a friend about this the other weekend who was visibly upset about how a competition turned out. I said so long as they do what they're passionate about then nothing else matters.

"Follow your passion" is fairly common advice in the SCA, in any small-liberal-artsy context

Comments

[viking_food_guy]

I agree wholeheartedly. I find that competition is a great way to get motivated to a) finish something I always wanted to finish or b) take some project to the next level where I otherwise wouldn't have bothered. Plus they have deadlines, which I have discovered are a must if I'm actually going to get anything done.

[ursule]

Yes, I need deadlines, too. My ongoing challenge these days is that the SCA actually gives me *more* deadlines than the Ph.D. does, and I have to be careful not to let the SCA take too much.

[aelfgyfu]

Agree. That I why I don't jab at you more seriously. ;-)

[ursule]

I was actually thinking kind of seriously about bardic (well, a composition-primary set of entries), but then I decided to get married . . .

[aryanhwy]

Quite a lot of people on heraldry lists that I'm on, and non-heralds who contact me because of my articles, assume that I must be a Laurel or a Pelican. In a way, their belief that my research/service is at a peerage level is worth as much to me as an actual peerage would. One of my favorite award medallions is for an award I never got. It was for a principality award, and when Northshield became a kingdom and there was no longer any chance that I would be given the award, the friend who had made me the medallion (cast in 24 carat gold from a mold of his own medallion for that award) gave it to me in front of all my friends from my original shire saying that they couldn't understand why their recommendation letters had never been acted on.

This is not to say that I wouldn't dearly love to be made a Laurel in onomastics someday! :)

[ursule]

Really, nothing sounds more impressive than "Laurel in onomastics". They should make you one just so you can make the council more intimidating ;)

[mmcnealy]

And you know what? I do want to be a Laurel when I grow up. I don't want to be a Laurel to the exclusion of sanity, or a real job, or rereading Jane Austen and petting the cats. But sometimes a little bit of ambition can be useful.

Yup, me too.

I enter competitions so that I take things to the next level and compete against myself. Of course this works best when I give myself enough time to actually do a good job, not just try to rush things at the end and hope that it all works out. Writing the documentation the night before is *not* a good thing I've learned.

[ursule]

Well, some of us know it's a bad idea and try it anyway ;)

[philthecow]

"Follow your passion" is fairly common advice in the SCA, in any small-liberal-artsy context, in life. I find it mildly alienating.

I'm not sure about what the rest of the post means, but about this I agree entirely. Wholly, wholly alienating.

[ursule]

Yeah, sometimes I just want room for dispassion and dilettantism and paradox-of-choice-style "screw this, I'm just going to get a job and bake cookies."

(The Order of the Laurel is one of the SCA's most prestigious arts awards. To be made a member of the order you have to demonstrate chivalry, service, and crazy craft/research skills. The current members of the Order choose new members in consultation with Their Majesties. In other words, it's impressive and the selection process involves heavy doses of geek politics. I think the conversation about the Laurel is a little bit like conversations about Honors-- of course lots of people want High Honors, heck, even Highest Honors, but if you SAY you want Highest Honors people will treat you like an imminently-explosive stressball.)

Re: Possibly a bit more accurate...

[ursule]

Well, yours is a more precise legal description, but it's a lot like saying Congress recommends laws to the President-- it's not necessarily the most effective way of communicating the attendant politics.

[otherwind]

I also find the platitude "follow your passion" to be less useful than I once did. I have many passions (most everything I do I am passionate about) but I think that in my family, that directive carried an unintended message--as in, 'do something you love, something artsy, something that comes easy, don't worry about doing things that are really hard, they might be too hard--do something fun.' It took me until recently to realize, hey, I've got more in me than that--I can be more than an artsy-fartsy English major (would you like fries with that?). I _can_ do math, (or statistics anyway), I don't need to settle for being a teacher at a little private school with crap pay, I can reach much higher. I can even be a PhD

[ursule]

I've very much enjoyed your accounts of your studies-- especially because my little sister is also planning a psychology Ph.D. & an eventual practice, and it's interesting to me to see the different ways to travel the same path.

Definitely thinking about balance vs. out-of-balance vs. stasis is more useful for me personally.

(glasseye and I like our online snark, but I don't think we're actually in disagreement. I'm more inclined to focus on the process of persuasion, and to see the means by which the council persuades itself as an integral part of the process rather than a black box emitting proposals, and to hope that Their Majesties and the council are in agreement *before* a formal recommendation is made, and, heck, to believe Their Majesties' greatest power is persuasion too. But this is mere philosophy. ;) )