Understanding The People

Dear friends, as a penitence for last night's perceived insult, the Archdruid has insisted that I do some personality analysis of the Beaker Community (and associated Baptists who live on the Estate) for her. And in the spirit in which the request was made (that is, threatening) I have worked all night to achieve this.

I have plotted the Beaker People into groups based on the two continua of active-passive, and giving-receiving. As a sector graph, this gives me the following:

The Punters (or as the Archdruid calls them "Passengers") are those that quietly attend Community meetings, have their spiritual needs met, and never change much. They won't be found leading discussions, they won't be changing the world, and if they die during a service it may be a week or two until we notice. But when they are gone, they will be missed - although we won't quite know why. I have labelled "Niamh" as a typical Punter, as she has sat at the back of the Moot House quietly for the last few years, stayed all through the period of time when the Archdruid was unexpectedly in Hardy's Wessex, and the people that took over never noticed her. But she always puts 20p in for her cup of tea.

The Workers are those people that cheerfully give their time and energy for the Community.  They sweep the floors, arrange the flowers, and staff the committees. They play the instruments, make the coffee and bang the holes out of doilies without complaint. They can also be found painting the Moot House -which the Archdruid finds very annoying, as she keeps trying to keep the hypertufa covering organically clean to encourage the lichen to grow. In other churches they would make good Wardens and Stewards. Despite this being her most willing and loyal group of Beaker People, strangely the Archdruid refers to them as "the Mugs".

The Consumers (or, as the Archdruid puts it, "Leeches") are mostly new to our community. Some have been members of the Guinea Pig Folk of Stewartby, and some will probably leave to join them shortly. For them, services are too long, too short, the music too loud, too old, too modern or too ocarina-based. The preaching is not challenging enough or else it is offensive. They want strong leadership - as long as it is in line with their own opinions.They will sit near the back, accept spiritual help, then one day complain that "we aren't having our needs met" and go somewhere else. For once, I'm inclined to think the Archdruid might be right here. Not least as Eggwulf keeps expecting me to fetch him cups of coffee.

Finally, the Changers are the ones you really notice. Full of energy and giving and vision. They want to make a difference. Whether everyone else wants the change or not. As Thomas Hardy noted - these are the ones that can be tortured as a heretic, or revered as a prophet. Or, as Eileen mostly prefers, isolated as a trouble-maker.

In assigning the Beaker People their different ratings, I've been wondering whether religious leaders could be put into these four groups as well. And I've concluded that they probably can. Although most of the famous ones would by definition be "changers".  And indeed, I've worked out Eileen's ratings already. But, to be honest, Dear Reader, I'm not going to tell her what it is. It's probably safer that way.