2001-06-27 - 11:09 p.m.
Somedays, you're just on a roll ....
Today, I got in to work early, at like 7:30-ish, which is really early for me (as anyone who knows me can attest to). And I'm still here. So, that being the case, and now that I've finished working ahead enough to almost take the next two days off (yeah, right), I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and update my peeps. Today's topic ... my personal perspective on the OSA, done here vice in Christian's guestbook.
We all need goals, and I believe they need to be incremental. All's fine and dandy when you get a shark's tooth, but let's face it, that's for a single event (kind of like the QoC or the KAE can be). And the Kraken is great, too, but it's really an AoA level award, kind of like validation that you're heading down a good path with potential for success. But then ...... could be five years later before you see another fighting award, and you never really know if you're on the 'short list' or where you stand unless someone leaks it to you. Don't get me wrong, constructive criticism is always available (sometimes even from non-fighters...), but constructive criticism isn't the same as validation of your progress. Maybe you win a tourney here and there, or maybe not. And you feel that you're making great strides in the right direction, but if you think like me, then you're always slightly biased anyway.
For me, the OSA is a great incremental 'promotion' toward joining the ranks of knighthood. Napolean said that you can motivate a man to fight to the death if you just give him a little piece of cloth to wear on his uniform, and I've found that to be one of the more astute military observations to which I've been exposed (much better than "piss downstream", or the like, which although valuable doesn't do a whole hell of a lot to make me a better leader). The other peerages have incremental 'promotions', and I think it's great that the chivalry does now as well. Validation = good good.
Not that it will make me play any differently than I already do, but I'm sure it will keep the spring in my step when I start to wonder if I'm on the right track. And we know those times, they do come.
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