So 24 hours ago, I laid down after a hot and some what long reenactment. In hindsight though it was an important reminder why I very much prefer being in with a tight nit group that accepts me for who I am. This weekend I was a freelancer. Camping was lonely my meals were little more then the intake of nutrition, bed time was the time for sleep not a time to lay in the tent next to your neighbor's and chatting quietly. The event was fun, any time you go to a reenactment was, but having only three members of my immediate reenacting family (My mounted trooper, her sister, my corporal and my first sergeant) and a speckling of a few extended family at the event who in honesty I didn't get to visit with a whole lot. The event was lonely for me.
From the strictly pagan prospective the event as with most others didn't have a whole lot to offer me. There was next to no unobstructed nature for me to enjoy. There were two different church services for Christian practitioners, to which I say I'm genuinely happy for them. part of my personal tenants as an ordained priest is that I must respect ALL forms of divinity, even if their practitioners do not extend me the same respect. Divinity is divinity, is divinity, it all comes from the same basic place, it's the interpretation we as the followers take away from it that gets messed up. It is this view that allows even some of my Christian friends to come to me for priestly console. They know I have an understanding of the Christian faith (I used to be one, a very devote one at that.) They know I will not speak for their God, but I will provide advise, or an ear, or just comfort from a place that he'd be ok with. They also know I don't judge them.
At any rate part of the problem being in such a small community with in a larger community is that you have no one to gather with and worship with as you see fit. In all of Michigan the number of Pagans that I know who are reenactors, I could count on one hand.
I am very lucky when it comes to my unit. Even though non of them are Pagan, they are all accepting of me for being one. It's nice to be surrounded by wonderful people who choose to see the good in me, and inspire me to be more then I was before I joined them. Before I joined the brigade I was shy, timid, anti social to a degree because I did not have the bravery to face other people who might think lowly of me. Now I am not as shy, I'm not timid at all, simply reserved about when it comes time to raise my voice, but when I raise my voice MAN do I raise it, and I'm not anti social any more.
The camp site where our unit normally camped this morning was inhabited by "Florida Buffalo Soldiers." Over the course of Saturday their sloppy display of Cavalry got three of their numbers hurt two of them wound up in the hospital. I have no knowledge of what transpired Sunday, to be honest I couldn't bare to watch it for a second day in a row.
From the strictly reenactor view of the hobby. The event at Jackson has changed so much over the last twenty years, and not by half for the better. Some things could not be avoided. The city of Jackson wanted to put baseball diamonds in; so sutler row had to be moved. What they lost was location, but what they gained was some notion of shade, where the original sutler row was in a wide open dusty field that was void of it. Then there is the battle field. It has progressively shrunk over the years as the crows got bigger, the various parts of it got gobbled up, by a special impressions section, a band pavilion, a pond, and their moving the general public ever closer to the action. The Ball has been moved several times. First they had it at the school, but because of the actions of another event the weekend after Jacksons Civil War muster one year the school closed it's doors to all special events. Then for a number of years the Ball was in the location where the Urban Fishing Pond and the Gazebo presently are. As of two years ago the ball has been spent out on the driving range near that facilities rest rooms which is close for any one in period camps, but for people from the sutlers, or in modern camp, it's about a half mile walk by the most direct route. The biggest thing though that has changed about Jackson is their numbers. I remember about 15 years ago when there were as many as 5,000 reenactors at it. and it was able to legitimately boast being the third largest event in all of the Mid West. People were traveling from as far as Kansas annually to participate for the weekend. But be it threw things changing so much that those participants just did not care for it any more, or political nonsense with the various units. The some were around 500 reenactors by my best guess this year was a pitiful display of it's once former glory. Which is just as well, the field we have to work with now would be physically incapable of safely supporting the numbers we've had before. It can barely safely support the numbers we have now.
Not the most complete review ever, but it's what I have for now
Blessed be
Johnny out
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