I have been a Magic Judge for a while now. Over five years, apparently. This community has given me a lot. For a long time, its been a place for people to learn, grow, and thrive. People who dont fit in with the greater community might fit in perfectly into the program - or perhaps we just have a good tolerance for variety. All in all, we are pretty accepting. These last couple of months have been weird for judges - a lot of changes are coming down the pipeline, and were not sure if well be able to continue doing what we like in a way that makes sense to us or matches our expectations. Obviously this has been tough, and we are maybe not handling it as well as we might ordinarily - but the news all came at once. Communities are important. Without the three most important communities in my life - Mazemakers, Mens Blue and White, and the Magic Judge program - I would not be anything like who I am today. These three communities have given me the opportunity to make a person out of whatever I might have been without them, and with effort and time, I managed a few years ago to finally become a person I was truly proud to be. I have always felt pride in my place in these communities - especially the Magic Judge program, as it is the one of the three where my status isnt simply alumnus - and I have tried to help grow the Judge program and foster the community in a way that helps people who are where I was become who they want to be. Today we did kind of a crappy job dealing with something we didnt like. I did what I sometimes do - I made a flippant joke about the situation at large and moved on. Then I realized this was not what I needed to be doing. Was I worsening the problem? No. I wasnt helping, though. This is not an isolated incident. We are not doing well with this recently, as far as I can tell. The Judge program is under some stress from external forces these days. Well survive that stress. At least, we will unless we continue to lash out at our greatest allies - each other. Lets be honest for a minute: I do things you dont agree with. I do things you dont like. I do those things from a place of good intentions. Some of these decisions are ones I will defend until I drop. Others I will admit as mistakes. Some Im even unsure about. I do not find myself ridiculed in public, though. Why? A few reasons. Im not a repeat offender, Im not malicious, but moreover, Im a reasonably popular high level judge. If I screw up, people either say so to my face or go complain in the corner where I never hear about it. Same thing if Im accidentally a jerk or insensitive. So why should someone who is accidentally a jerk or insensitive and happens to not be Eric Levine, Public Figure get ostracized? Sure, sometimes we have to give people the boot for remorseless bad acts or for acts so severe that they breach our trust irreparably. Has this happened in the situation Im so vaguely alluding to? I didnt see the offending posts, and Im sure I wouldnt have liked them, but are we sure theres not some other disconnect here? Could we be doing something to help that were not doing because we have personality conflicts? Or are we not doing it because were just tired of dealing with this issue? Whatever it is, lets at least think about ways to help the program - whether it be a quiet exit for future ill-doers, specific and non-shaming feedback, or whatever other solution - instead of ways to create rifts. Just cutting something out does no good if you dont properly treat and sterilize the wound. In this case, I worry we may be going at ourselves with a chainsaw. Lets be excellent to each other.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 05:12:03 +0000
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