by Aldus Marius on Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:49 am
Salvete ambobus...
Na, we don't have one-ten-thousandth the shenanigans that they do over there. (An old-timer once said in the Comitia that we're so civil, we're boring.) But that we could be compared with NR at all in some other way than by stark contrast--that we could even have an uproar to compete with theirs--makes a bad joke of our origins, our heritage and our mission. What origins, what heritage, what mission? --Nobody seems to know anymore, and few of us even try to teach them. The sense of societal cohesion we had here, even as recently as last year when so many of you saw me through the Cub crisis, has seemingly vanished.
In 2008, for the Feriae Latinae gathering in Austin, NR officialdom was a big fat no-show. Why? --Because "the Roman Republic Reborn" had had another one of its periodic nervous breakdowns, this time featuring two close friends of mine who got on opposite sides of an issue there. One cancelled out when he learned that the other one was coming. Turned out the other one couldn't make it either. For most other prospective attendees, there was not enough time to plan...because we held back the announcement until the Pontifices could officially announce the dates for the Feriae. We broke away from Nova Roma eight years ago (nobody noticed the anniversary this year)...and we are still being affected by the general bullshittiness of the place.
On the plus side, we've gotten a lot of fine, friendly and active Sodales from within their ranks. Okay, so one or two of us have been sucked into the abyss, perhaps in exchange. Even so, the NR ex-patriates here will probably be the ones who save my sense of purpose and what's left of my morale.
In fide...
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.