Complex Numbers

Critical Miss

So this happened:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/medieval-re-enactor-fatally-impales-self-with-his-l...

I've never been in the SCA or gone to any SCA events, but I tend to have friends with that proclivity. Hell, my ex-wife was part of that group. Add in the guy being from my state, and also close to my age, and I started to wonder if we had any friends in common.

Well, it turns out that one of my closest friends had known the deceased since 1991 - a lot longer than he's known me - and that Barclay had mentored him in several skills, including the holy art of brewing. I've reaped the benefits of this art a few times, so while I didn't know the guy myself, it's not farfetched to note that his life affected mine.

It's easy for "normal" people with "normal" hobbies to make fun of incidents like this, as if no one's ever died or been injured from football or street racing or whatever it is that normal people do. And they forget that this was a person with a family and people who cared about him - all that seems to matter to them was that he died doing something nerdy, so they can feel superior.

From what my friend has told me, Barclay was a multitalented individual with a great deal of knowledge and skill. Said knowledge and skill wasn't applied toward socially-acceptable activities such as chasing balls around or foreclosing on poor peoples' houses, so the bulk of society could safely dismiss him as one of those weirdos with padded swords and funny names. It doesn't help that I just got to the episode of Supernatural that features LARPing - really bad timing on my part. An escapist fantasy story mocks people who like to immerse themselves in escapist fantasies; it's almost as if the writers have no conception of irony.

Yes, I know that SCA != LARP, but the Venn diagram has a pretty big intersection.

Life is fleeting and any of us could kick it at any time. We should all be so lucky as to go out doing something that's aligned with our own truth. Preferably at 103 and not 53, though.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/man-dies-in-tragic-accident-in-medieval-recreation...