An Open Question for 'Jock Scot' (and Scots)

[Jock Scot]

Okay, fair enough, you don't play at being a Norman, Pole, German etc. but in response please see Sir William's post above -- and because it's just plain fun! BTW: plenty of people here do "play at" (in your terms) being Germans, Russians, Mexicans, Poles, cowboys, sailors, Confederates (especially "here" in the South), doctors, lawyers, (some even with the credentials to back it up) and indian chiefs ... and as Islandkilt notes, the ultimate alternative would be to end up naked and unshaven in the back yard, pounding rocks together, which if it were a warm day and the neighbors didn't complain, might be fun too but then someone might say that would just be "playing caveman" and some "real" caveman might take offense or "just not get it!" If a "real" cave man were to say: "Why in the world would anyone want to be a caveman," I'd begin to wonder about how he feels about being one himself. We all play at something, at least sometimes. Otherwise, life can be pretty dull. And again, sometimes a kilt is just more comfortable than trousers, period!

No I don't play at being a Norman etc . I have to be careful here , but I think I am on fairly safe ground to say that most Scots don't( ok let us wait for the exception to chip in!)do as a matter of course "roots". I think that a few do military reenactment of one sort of another, perhaps a bit of "knights" jousting and of course the Jacobite thing. But on the whole it is nothing to do with what GGGGGGrandPappy got up to.

Yes we have our interests, football, beer , women, vintage cars, guns, fishing and so on but funnily enough kilts would probably not register very high on the list(as an interest) and delving into our ancestry would probably appear even lower on the list.

Now I have given an example of an Aussie wanting to borrow a kilt for a "Scots night" and yes I can see that, I can accept easily an American saying I wear the kilt because it is comfortable, I can accept a young Latvian lad saying I wear the kilt because it "pulls" the girls, I can accept a Pole saying I wear the kilt because I like the tartan pattern and many more just as valid reasons.

I don't understand this honour and respect of "my" ancestors reason that many on this website from outwith Scotland freely voice and whilst I accept that these reasons are genuinely held and meant by many voicing this view, it fails to register in Scotland for some and of course me. We in Scotland, if we do and many do, just respect our ancestors in a less high profile way and of course quietly wearing wearing our tartan is one of those ways, but then we are Scots, thats what Scots do.

[O'Searcaigh]

No I don't play at being a Norman etc . I have to be careful here , but I think I am on fairly safe ground to say that most Scots don't( ok let us wait for the exception to chip in!)do as a matter of course "roots". I think that a few do military reenactment of one sort of another, perhaps a bit of "knights" jousting and of course the Jacobite thing. But on the whole it is nothing to do with what GGGGGGrandPappy got up to.

Yes we have our interests, football, beer , women, vintage cars, guns, fishing and so on but funnily enough kilts would probably not register very high on the list(as an interest) and delving into our ancestry would probably appear even lower on the list.

Now I have given an example of an Aussie wanting to borrow a kilt for a "Scots night" and yes I can see that, I can accept easily an American saying I wear the kilt because it is comfortable, I can accept a young Latvian lad saying I wear the kilt because it "pulls" the girls, I can accept a Pole saying I wear the kilt because I like the tartan pattern and many more just as valid reasons.

I don't understand this honour and respect of "my" ancestors reason that many on this website from outwith Scotland freely voice and whilst I accept that these reasons are genuinely held and meant by many voicing this view, it fails to register in Scotland for some and of course me. We in Scotland, if we do and many do, just respect our ancestors in a less high profile way and of course quietly wearing wearing our tartan is one of those ways, but then we are Scots, thats what Scots do.

Ahh, now we have something, and very nicely said. Perhaps Americans take a different view of their "roots" because (unless you are a native Cherokee, etc) their deep roots are rather far way in both space and time. One's sense of who one is -- their personal identity -- is a very complicated (and potentially problematic) thing and a sense of "connectedness" is something many long for. I am now living in the south where many here have "roots" going back at least to Davy Crocket (a neighbor is a direct descendant) and they tend to "play at" being other things (other than Tennessee-ans) much less than say folks living in southern California where one can find just about any kind of ethnic thing to "play at" most any time of the year. Jock, you don't have to "seek out" your ancestors to honor them. They are all around you. Ours aren't! Oh, and I especially appreciate your acknowledgment and recognition of reasons like "it's just more comfortable" or "it pulls the girls in" or "hey, what a beautiful tartan" -- reasons enough, I'd say!