Living the Dream

[Sir_Catherine]

I've heard talk about the "magic moment" when an event ceases to be merely an SCA event and, for a time, becomes a medieval reality. Modernity falls away and the Dream comes alive. Then someone walks by with a coke can and it shatters.

Oddly enough, I don't believe I've ever truly had this experience. I've fully enjoyed myself at events, learned a lot and had fun, but modern reality has never fallen to the wayside to the degree I've heard others tell of.

Please, share your own experiences on this matter. Have you had such moments? What event? Do you know what triggered it? Is it what you actively seek from the SCA or just a side advantage? Or, like me, is it not something you've felt for yourself? Do you hope to?

Furthermore, do you actively pursue this Dream? Do you try to help others experience it or focus on whatever you do for fun, even if it involves elf ears and scanty chain-mail? Do you think it is an integral part of what the SCA is, or should be, about?  

[Divash]

It seems to me pretty easy to slip into the Middle Ages, and pretty easy to stay there. I remember maintaining it even while someone walked by with a can of Pepsi at my first Simple Day In The Country in Barony Sternfeld (Indianapolis area). I remember being at Gulf Wars and feeling very medieval even while someone drove up in their mundane car and unloaded and set up camp in their mundane clothing; I even maintained it when someone in bleedingly-obvious fake fur walked by with a plastic helm on, one they'd clearly bought in the toy section at Target.

The only thing that threw me back out of persona was when someone walked up to me on my last day at Gulf Wars and complimented me on always staying in persona. I maintained my accent and played dumb. "Eh? What you saying? I don'' knao dis Pursonna. You ask in next camp, maybe she there." But it jangled on my nerves.