Kilts and Self-Identity

[brandycr]

I am a mother .
I am a daughter.
I am a teacher.
I am a seeker of knowledge and truth.
I am a lover of nature.
I am a lover of books.
I am a creative soul.
I am a Friend.
I am openminded.
I am someone who embrases the unknown .
I am a activist.
I am a loving soul.
I am someone who will play in the rain.
I am someone who will sing badly and dance my kids around to Otis ,Percy,or Solomon anyday.
Geez these I ams could last forever over all I am a soul placed here by a higher being to spread love hapiness and understanding and to love everyone no matter who they are .

[Panache]

"You are who you choose to be"

Iron Giant c1999

SUPERMAN!

Cheers

Jamie

(Just love that movie...)

[Kiltman]

Before I retired I tended to define myself by my job (I did drugs - the legal kind!)

After retirement I had some difficulty in defining my self until someone suggested that we retirees are really undergoing a renaissance - and that's how I really see myself now - a renaissance man. Among others I've taken up watercolor painting and learning the bagpipes, designed web sites, begun creating sgian dubhs, making kilts, sail when I want too and generally enjoying life and steadfastly refusing to act my age!!!


I'm not 63, I'm 23 with 40 years experience!!


Brian

Seems like the best way to be 60+. As a friend said: It's much easier to rebel at this end of life.

[andyfg]

Alan, thanks for starting a great thread (and all others for posting).

Funnily, I have been thinking about the same thing recently and have been playing around with the ideas of the “I” and the “me.” The “I” being who I am in the deepest sense of the self: that which is unchanging; the “me” being that sense of self that changes with passing attachments.

If that makes sense, then kilt wearing is very much an attachment. Five years ago I did not wear kilts, today I do. In five years time, who knows? If kilt wearing (or any other attachment) is taken as defining of the “I,” we head for trouble. If kilts are taken away, or we cannot afford the next one, or our significant other bans them (heaven forbid!) then our sense of self is shaken at the least.

In the other posts, folk say generally “I am . . .” an activity (this is what I do, and what I do shapes who I am) or “I am . . .” a virtue (this is what I am like, and what I am like defines me). I suspect that even activities and virtues belong to passing attachments. Today I am angry, tomorrow I am happy, next Tuesday I am more loving. Yet, none of that is “I,” for “I” can look at “me” when I am more loving or sad. Thirty years ago I was a bank clerk, twenty years ago I was a minister, today I am a philosophy professor. Yet, even those relate to the “me” and “I” look on them with interest. They pass too. Kilt wearing, in this sense, cannot define the self.

Cheers!

[cessna152towser]

Like a few others here I'm a retiree fulfilling life's ambitions at last. I wanted a career in the aviation industry but was told there was no job security in flying and I should qualify in law first, just like the M.D. of the airline I worked for at weekends. Graduated in law and served apprenticeship in a family law office, which I loathed, then made a career in local government, initially as a schools lawyer in the west of Scotland which took me to Oban, Campbeltown, Islay, Mull, Tiree etc. and I enjoyed the short hops back and forward to the islands and the Kintyre peninsula on the aeroplane as a passenger. Eventually ended up as manager of a Town Hall. Retired after 30years at 53, since when I've set up my own law firm providing specialist legal services to the public sector on a consultancy basis and got involved in aviation part-time both as a private pilot and an air museum volunteer. My only wish that my wife was still more mobile to share in more of my travels (she had a stroke in 1999 which affected her right side). Kilts were just something my wife coaxed me to wear when we used to go to Scottish Country Dancing, then I eventually discovered their comfort for workwear and casual wear, and now the people who know me through work or leisure expect me to be kilted when they see me.

[Kornbread]

I think I am Popeye.Cause, I YAM WHAT I YAM.

[cloves]

hrmmmm......I'd like to "think" I am a warrior. Albeit a peaceful one.
Why? uhm...well much like when AlanH said being a builder/creator encompassed many facets of his life.....I think the term "warrior" works much the same for me. Besides the fact that for as long as I can remember I've enjoyed things of a "martial" nature....I always seem to be bucking trends and butting heads.
Always fighting for what I think is correct.

My self identity isn't about the kilt itself, so much as the need for me (or anyone) to be able to wear it politically, and about me defending that right.

[McClef]

Kiltio Ergo Sum.

I Kilt, therefore I am.

[Kid Cossack]

I am, to quote Kris Kristofferson, a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction. I'm a former Marine, a reformed lawyer, a siding salesman . . . if we want to define ourselves by how we earn money. I'm a Christian, a father and a husband, and think those are more important than the earning money part. I'm proud of my Celtic heritage, but not in a way that denigrates other cultures (most cultures can point to their own heroes and, yes, villains). I believe in the power of cooperation. Philosophically and economically I am probably closest to the Austrian School, and am a big fan of Ludwig von Mises.

And yeah, I wear a kilt, all the time.

[flairball]

This is a subject which I believe most people never talk about, or think about. I feel fortunate that here at X Marks we have what seems to be a bit more open minded, aware community. Perhaps kilts do that to a person, but more likely I believe one must have a different understanding of the world to wear a kilt in the first place.

Ones unique identity can't be summed up too easily, and often is more complex than one realizes. In many ways ones identity can be reduced to a word, occupation, or activity. It's at these times that the other key traits you possess quantify your being who you are at that time. It is possible for one person to wear more than one hat, and have two identities sharing similar traits.

What I do, and who I am become one when I enter the fire house. I do not normally define my being as a firefighter, but I become one when on duty. It's all the other traits I proudly possess that make it possible for me to do so. These traits are the same traits I possess when not on duty, and what keep me being me.

So who am I, how do I identify myself, and what are these traits? I guess it all boils down to what's important to you. I value honestly, but know it's impossible to be 100% honest. I value humility, but often fall into societies narcisitic trappings. I value forgiveness, which allows me to move on and keep trying even when I've not been honest or humble. I believe in being a gentleman, which I know I am on the inside, but the outside is still in training. I value empathy, and selflessness. Two things which I believe greatly help me to be a good husband, and friend. I value efficiency, thought, thoughtfulness, and individuallity.

If I must label myself, I'm a firefighter at work, a hunter in the woods, a fisherman in the water, and a husband at home. These labels aren't so important though. They are things which are important to me, but are just labels. It's the above traits, all of which I try to adhere to no matter which hat I'm wearing that allow me to focus 100% on the label of the day. Does my kilt factor into my identity? I guess some what indirectly. Knowing my short comings in the gentleman department, I believe that wearing a kilt helps me to be more forcused on acting like a genleman. When I wear my kilt I feel good about my self, and my appearance, and I try to act like the gentleman I believe I should be, and look like.

It is my belief that in today's society too amny people really follow the status quo, and give no thought to questioning convention. I don't all convention is miss guided, but even if it does make sense, shouldn't one understand how it's become convention. Too Many people who do question convention become labelled negatively, rather than being seem as "thinkers, individuals, or progressive".

Where does the kilt enter this equation? Well, I belive a most kilt thinkers, what ever the reason for wearing a kilt, have probably encountered enough non-senseical resistance to their kilt wearing that they have come to question other conventions, become a bit more empathetic, and looked deeper into themselves as a result. And this is a good thing.