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Word just went out on Facebook that Countess Aiden has passed away. It's a bit of a shock -- I hadn't heard that anything was up but then, I haven't had much contact with her in recent years.

You know how people will sometimes talk about the first King (or Baron) who really made a powerful positive impression on them being "their King"? Aiden was Caitlin's and my Kingdom Officer, the person who defined for us how you do the job. Caitlin was well-known as the Institutional Memory of the East, but we were always conscious that she had picked that job up from Aiden -- when we were getting involved at the Kingdom level, Aiden was the Kingdom's Lawspeaker, in much the same way that Kali was Carolingia's: she was the person who not only knew *what* the laws were, but *why* they had been written that way in the first place, and by whom. Long after she stepped down as Kingdom Seneschal, she was the calm voice in Curia saying, "Your Majesty, I think there's a better way to do that".

We were never terribly close to her, but we learned a lot simply by watching her and learning by her example. She was an important force for coherence and sanity in the Kingdom, and one of my exemplars of the Order of the Rose: courteous but forceful. She will be missed...
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In my years in the SCA, I've had a lot of people who I considered mentors in one way or another. Some are obvious, like Steffan, my Pelican, with whom we honed the particular flavor of discussion that would come to be known as Silverwinging. Some are less so -- for example, Bish, whose sense of humor and perspective I came to appreciate in my interactions with him and readings from his days at the top. From Patri, I tried to learn style and the proper behavior of a gentleman; from Marian, her common sense and joy of learning.

But possibly the very first one was Kali Harlansson, MKA Caleb Hanson. He was Seneschal of Carolingia when I joined -- I started attending Great Council pretty much as soon as I started -- and in the ways that these things work, I sort of figured he had been Seneschal forever. He wasn't a perfect administrator, or anything like that, but he drove home to me the notion that when you are in a role like that, the paperwork is less important than the role of community leader. Sure, the Baron inspires the Barony and provides it with vision, but the Seneschal is responsible for taking that vision and helping the community coalesce, in a practical sense, to get things done. He ran the show with wit and grace, and that made Great Council *fun* in a way that I think has been forgotten over the years. It wasn't just a business meeting, it was where the entire Barony could come together to see each other and meet as a community, on the level, as friends.

He had an acute sense of the SCA's own history, and loved to tell it, and he was one of the people from whom I picked up that particular passion. (And then Caitlin picked it up and ran with it.) Over the years, he became effectively Carolingia's Lawspeaker, the person who understood not just what our Charter said, but *why* it said that, what history caused it to be that way, and what the implications were. He never put on airs about that, but he had the good sense and deep knowledge needed for that role, especially after Patri passed away and Marian became too ill.

We didn't become personal friends until later years, both of us core members of what I sometimes call the Carolingian Old Farts Poker Table. He wasn't a card sharp, and often lost a little, but he always helped enliven the mood of the evening. For all that he was almost ten years older than me, I always admired his youthful spirit and mental energy.

He was one of the good ones -- not a founder of Carolingia per se, but one of the people who built its greatness. And he was simply a consistently good man, one of those rare people about whom I never heard a harsh word spoken. He will be much missed...

El

Jan. 30th, 2014 03:08 pm
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Today was the official VA Memorial Service for Master El. (Who passed away on October 1.) It was a nice enough service, but a tad generic -- a single service for 20 military vets, in the VA Hospital Chapel, with about 60 people in the audience, I'd guess. Half a dozen or so showed up for El, and a few more got there after the service proper, due to traffic. I arrived at the same time as, and sat with, Lowell and Siggy. I was glad to be able to be there (I had had a conflict, which got cancelled at the last minute): it made quite an impression on me that he managed to be at Jane's funeral, wheelchair and all, three years ago today.

Collectively, we managed to represent his various facets -- the Pelican, the legendary fan, and the bookseller. His social worker was, I gather, more than a little surprised to see this gaggle of white folks there for him -- I get the sense that she was never quite sure how much stock to put in his stories.

It did get me thinking about what I would have said if they'd asked for a word from friends and family. This is what came out.
Master El was a giant. Even when age and infirmity stooped his back and cost him his leg, he still had more sheer *presence* than any other three men I can think of. Whether he was seated on a bench, affably telling stories, or getting up during Court to complement or castigate the King, you always knew he was there.

I've always felt it a bit of an injustice that he was never recognized as a Tyger of the East. To me, he was always *the* Tyger, laced through early Kingdom history, an inspiration to us service types who came after. He could be a pain in the ass, to be sure, especially in his later years, but every culture needs its gadflies, to keep it honest.

He defended the weak; he fought for the right; he spoke truth to power. I know few who can claim to have done better than that...

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