Renaissance Festival Flashback

 

January 8th, 2021

Seeing the shirtless guy with the hairy hat and horns repeatedly today in the media made a memory fall out of my head.

We took little Elias and baby Anya to the Renaissance Festival in southern Ohio several years ago for some family fun.  We spent the day walking through the large complex of faux-medieval buildings and taking in the sights and performances.  The jousting was a highlight as was watching little Elias tear into a giant roasted turkey leg.  

Wandering the substantial grounds we passed many a visitor in costumes from various time periods, oftentimes with fantastical elements woven in.  I remember a dashing silver-haired man likely in his 70’s who was clad in black leather with silver studs, a wide brimmed leather hat with feather, and a magnificent sword slung across his back.  He struck me as a dandified swashbuckler in a Japanese anime story.

Towards the end of the day we were hot and tired and took a break under a tree.  Under the same tree was a young man probably in his early to mid-20’s who had caught my eye throughout the day due to his costume.  It was a Viking-esque ensemble that included a fur-lined half-helmet with large horns protruding from the sides and built-in metal pieces surrounding his eyes.  It was all of a piece and allowed a bit of his hairy chest to protrude in the middle.  He also had an imposing battle axe in hand.  

I watched him remove the impressive head piece to allow his sweaty and bearded face some relief from the sun and heat.  It struck me that I’d seen him walking around alone and even now at the end of the day there was no one with him.  I sized him up as a reserved nerdy type who had created a magnificent character but with no one to share it with apart from the throng of strangers at the Renaissance Festival.

The melancholy sight of this quiet loner tugged at my heart strings and so I walked over to him and told him how impressive I thought his costume was and wondered if he’d made it all by hand.  He immediately perked up and started talking about the various elements and how they came together.  As I’d suspected he was a bit socially awkward and almost apologetic about drawing attention to himself, yet eager to show off his creative efforts.  I just wanted to make sure that he knew that someone really appreciated the effort he’d put into his costume.

And then there’s the guy who helped storm the Capitol yesterday.  He was definitely costumed to some degree and was playing a role of some sort that was important to him no matter how misguided it may have been.  To be honest, that young man at the Renaissance Festival all those years ago helped humanize him in my eyes regardless of how angry his actions have made me.  Hating anyone is not really helping anyone and I hope he gets what he deserves, though I don’t pretend to know what that is.

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