Someone I have a lot of respect for on a mailing list recently spoke that using terms like “House” and other titles sometimes creates a distance between the person using it and others that is hard to cross and occasionally counter productive.
Of course she is right… as she so often is 🙂
Anyway, I wound up riffing off a reply to it… not as an argument, because there is no debate here. I just wound up running with my thoughts on it. I figured I’d put it here. I have taken a moment to format it. Hit the [MORE] link if you need to and let’s go!
From: soulhuntre [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 6:03 PM
To: <witheld>
Subject: “I have a dream” 🙂
I know that for me the distance is a tool. I am a “house” activist. I spent time speaking at the recent Ohio SMART specifically on the topic that we need MORE formal training houses in the community – that “market” forces will weed out the good from the bad… and that in a very real way competition will make it better for all of us.
I spoke of the central concept that drives me with The Estate and still drives me:
I want a submissive wearing out collar or mark to be able to go into any part, group or event anyplace in the world and have a fair number of the doms in that room to go “damn, where can I get me one of THOSE”.
I want to restore a value in service and training… build a brand identity and turn out a great product. If another group thinks we aren’t doing it right they can build their own brand.
Because somewhere out there, right now, is an amazingly gifted servant… someone who can be a real work of art… and she is walking into a [[wp|BDSM]] group asking where the training is, where the owners are and where people like her GO…. maybe because she read Laura’s books and went “YES, I am not alone!”.
She is walking into that group and finding out (like I did, like Flagg did, like [[SriC]] did) that the universal answer is “no place like that exists… that world is a fantasy and it can never be real”.
Bulls*t.
It isn’t real now but it CAN be… oh, not the auctions and so on maybe for a long time… but the dedication, the friendly competition and the value in service. The standards, the recognition and the understanding of those needs.
I know what most people think when I tell them I am part of a training house… I know because I can hear it in their voice when they try and make their witty comeback:
“What? Like in the Marketplace or something?”
And I LOVE watching them have no idea what to say when I look them in the eye and say…
“Yes, something like that.”
That distance is a challenge from me to the entire community. The challenge is this:
I know you are out there, I know you think this is right… do you have what it takes to step into this circle and declare it?
Soulhuntre
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my blog: http://weblog.soulhuntre.com
my site: http://www.soulhuntre.com
my mission: http://www.the-estate.com
my refuge: http://www.pure-submission.com
my passion: http://www.girl2.com
my living: http://www.dotpublishing.com