I am assuming [and we all know what that means] that this is the place to come and put, into words, what otherwise is left unsaid.
I just finished reading a thread, on a site, that I like very much. The title of the thread [which I will not reveal, here] intrigued me. Until I read it. I guess, in the "big picture", I'm just a fossil. A dinosaur, remembered, but ignored. How can a group, of so-called reenactment purists, be so defeatist and resigned? I was always under the impression [again, I am assuming] that the idea was to improve and relate said improvement, to the public. The "boobs and beer" crowd are ALWAYS going to be there. So why not continue to do YOUR best, at what YOU know to be "correct" and let THEM decide to learn or not to learn? When did it become a "do or die" situation? When did it become "well if they won't pay attention to MY way of doing this, I'll just take my information and go home"!? Who CARES if the guy, [at the chain link fence, that surrounds the Elizabethan Town] is a beer swigging tourist? He/She paid their [insert admission price, if there is one] to get in. They are either going to "learn something" or they're not. Ok. Most of them run around [swigging said beer] and say "ooh, ahh! I wish I had a [insert item here] like that!" They probably don't "want to learn history". For the same reason the same people go to see 'Sparticus'...they like to see "old stuff". That doesn't mean that you shouldn't reenact "because no one takes the time to learn what you've learned by how you learned it". It's a "party', folks. It's a "theme park" without the rides. They're having "fun" in their way. Why can't WE [as reenactors] have fun OUR way? WE want to wear "period correct". Talk "period correct". Eat, drink and sleep "period correct". THEY don't! Do we do it because we LIKE it, or because we want to get some kind of acknowledgment of the work we have done, to achieve that "period correct"? If you like it, do it. If you want to spend the time to "do it correctly" then do it. For God's sake, don't spend your life and time worrying about "what others will think" or try to change the world. Don't worry about "doing it period correct", and making sure that "beer guzzling tourist and his tank-top wearing floozie" notice and learn. It might happen. Then again........ Don't "pick up your toys and go home" just because you aren't "getting respect"." You can't get respect, until you give respect".

Life certainly is. Yep. My boy will be a senior, next year. Yep. I'll no longer have a "vested interest" in schools, etc. Or will I? Does anyone stop having an interest in something, because they are "no longer in the system", for whatever reason?
I think not. Shakespeare once said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women, merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time, plays many parts." This is so true. If one is only interested, when one is a part, then one need not be interested at all. Life does not end, because a certain event has ended. Be it marriage, school, Faire or otherwise.
How often do we, as human beings, stop what we're doing "just because"? "Just because" my son no longer will attend school, doesn't mean that I should stop caring about how education is meted out. "Just because" I no longer work, at the Renaissance Faire in California, doesn't mean that I should stop caring about how it is or has progressed. "Just because" it's different, now, doesn't mean I shouldn't care about things, as they were. "Just because" things aren't as they were, doesn't mean I shouldn't care about WHY they aren't the same.
Sometimes, this confuses me. Sometimes, it makes sense. We all get confused, and we all have senses that need tending. We all have hopes and dreams that we want to come true. We want everything to be perfect. We don't want anything to change. Or do we? Life will never be perfect. Everything changes. Hopes and dreams are, sometimes, just that. Onward and upward. Over and under. Left and right. Now and then. Here and there. Far and near. In and out. To and fro. Backward and forward. Off and on. First and second. One or the other.....Life, how tedious.....or is it?