2000-02-02: Comments from Owen
Comments from Owen
Feb 2 2000 4:56PM
This was originally posted to Volunteer Relations at uo.com.[1]
I have had many names. None of them matter. An Interest Game Master by any other name…would surely fill this soliloquy up with some departmental drum beating. Don’t worry; we’ll get to that good stuff soon enough. Now, where was I? Ah yes, the name.
I was given the name Owen in a dream, and the name of my clan, McNemar, is my birthright. I am Owen McNemar, descended of the Dal Cassian princes of the fair province of Munster in what is now known as Ireland. There in the southwest of old Eire, the McNemars were the second most powerful clan, serving as marshals to the Kennedy clans and Brian Boru himself. We built more castles in Ireland than can be found in the rest of Europe. The surname McNemar means "SeaWolf" in Irish (they don’t call it Gaelic over there, by the way), and this appellation was appropriate enough. We were poets, pirates, and prelates, but we were always living by the sea.
A little history for a frame of reference: I went to college for 3.875 years, and somehow the diploma came to represent anathema, a one-way ticket to a cubicle and the land of Dilbert. Besides, there was a whole world out there, just waiting to be uncovered…I visited Ireland in the summer of ’82, and my life changed forever. When I came back to the states, I moved from one occupation and life to the next, first as a lumberjack, then a year at IBM HQ in customer service. After IBM, I became a marionettist with The Bennington Puppets and toured New England. Then I counseled kids, both in the ghetto and among the gifted. After counseling had drained me, I worked in a mystical goods shop for a time, and then I went home to Ireland again.
I stayed. I learned legends, lore and language. Once I discovered that my great-grandfather came from the county I settled in (Co. Clare), I came to truly appreciate and understand the tradition of "Virtue and Valor" that had been both the motto and the mission of my clan. I came to find out that my clan had fought through the ages against the onslaught of Vikings, Danes, and Normans to preserve something called the Ford of Light. In Ireland I laughed, I loved, I lingered by ogham stones and dolmens, and I managed a youth hostel in Doolin, Co. Clare.
Then I came to Origin.
OK, if you’re thinking that the editor hacked out a few good years in between Ireland and Origin, you’re right, but bless their deadline-saturated hearts, someone had to do it.
I regard myself as a shepherd of the continually unfolding UO story, and a guardian of its very bright future. My mailbox is always open. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] with suggestions for events, plots and fiction. The beauty of a dynamic perpetual world is that your input can really make a difference.
All the best, Owen McNemar
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