Sgian Dubh and the Church

[Jock Scot]

Every public place in America has a kitchen. How do you think we all got so doughy?

Don't tell our vicar the poor fellow would have a heart attack!

Mind you "our"churches are, on the whole, several centuries older than "yours". I bet you even have heating that works in "yours"!

[BoldHighlander]

Mind you "our"churches are, on the whole, several centuries older than "yours". I bet you even have heating that works in "yours"!

And air conditioning too!

[Panache]

And air conditioning too!

Ah those poor Scots have to attend church in the blistering summer heat of Scotland without air conditioning.

Poor Folks!

Cheers

Jamie

[BoldHighlander]

Ah those poor Scots have to attend church in the blistering summer heat of Scotland without air conditioning.

Poor Folks!

Cheers

Jamie

That's alright, sometimes they forget to turn ours off when its cold out!!

[wildrover]

Hilarious!

I s'pose, were your small knife challenged, you could pop back to the kitchen and borrow a bread knife to stick down your sock!

My pocket knife goes everywhere with me. Usually it's strapped to my gym bag, sometimes it's on my belt, it comes with me to work every day, my boss does the same...if anyone ever asked about a sgian, I'd just tell 'em it's a pocket knife, and the appropriate place to wear it is in my sock . That's just the plain truth of it...

There's no accounting for people who are easily offended, or walk through life in a cloud of paranoia. IIWY, I'd keep my pocket knife close in church like I do any other time of day...maybe take the nice one rather than the beat up one...but I bet most don't care, and the one who speaks up probably speaks up about everything else under the sun . A man should never be without a sturdy pocket knife! Wear it if you want to wear it, or don't, if you don't feel it appropriate.

-Sean

[fluter]

Don't tell our vicar the poor fellow would have a heart attack!

Fortunately for my conscience, our kitchen is sometimes used for feeding the poor, as well as feeding the already well-upholstered.

Mind you "our" churches are, on the whole, several centuries older than "yours". I bet you even have heating that works in "yours"!

Let's say "heating that sometimes works." Our church building is one of the older ones in the neighborhood---but recall that the US is characterized as a place where a hundred years is a long time. We were surveying for a little fix-up, and discovered that the roof was likely to fall in at any time. So, for a period of up to a couple of years, we will be worshipping in the gym. Yes, Jock; that's what I said. Please don't tell the vicar.

[bigdad1]

Mind you "our"churches are, on the whole, several centuries older than "yours". I bet you even have heating that works in "yours"!

Yes most of our churches do have heat. We are a very progressive society. However the religion practiced in those churches isn't any older in Scotland that it is here in heathen land. Nor is the basic requirement of the golden rule. I take that to mean that if your sock knife upsets people you should divest yourself of it just as you would hope (expect?) that someone else would respect your fears or apprehensions. Ultimately it isn't whether you can wear a knife in church but whether you should respect your fellow man. It doesn't matter if the "black knife" story is myth or fact. It matters that sometimes we must put our own egos (and if dressing in a kilt isn't ego) aside and just plain be nice to people. In my not so humble opinion that is the bottom line and how I would approach it.

[Panache]

It matters that sometimes we must put our own egos (and if dressing in a kilt isn't ego) aside and just plain be nice to people. In my not so humble opinion that is the bottom line and how I would approach it.

The sgian dubh is a part of highland attire, but in truth it is the least important part of it (in my opinion).

It isn't all that noticeable whether present or not

Now I am the last person anyone would call meek or mild. But taking this bit of metal out of my sock is really very little skin off my nose.

I am not really a church goer

But I have been honored when my friends have asked me to join them at a service.

The thing that has struck me most about all of them, regardless of denomination is the sense of community.

Maybe this is just my opinion but it seems to me that people attend church to both experience and celebrate the divine as well as bond with their community.

So when I, an outsider, is invited to join this group I do so.

I choose to share this experience and I dress and act in a way that shows respect to that community.

And I am the better for this experience.

I have a huge sense of self but somehow church has never seemed quite the place to stress individuality.

Just my thoughts

Cheers

Jamie :ootd:

[ThistleDown]

The sgian dubh is a part of highland attire, but in truth it is the least important part of it (in my opinion).

It isn't all that noticeable whether present or not

I almost wish I could agree with you Jamie, but I can't. Others here have referred to their fathers' pocket knives and that would be my father, too. For me -- and my grandfather and those before him -- the sgian dubh acts as that little utility knife used to cut string, remove thorns, slice cheese, carve a twig, gut a fish and on and on. Not, I must admit, the delicate plastic accessory of today, but a very sharp, hardy tool somewhat akin to the folding Buck in America, I suppose. And not, I would think, as needed today in an urban environment any more than that smaller one formerly used to shape quills.

But hardly worth an issue of who-will-win. I would gently back down and let the control lady have her way.

Ah, but the point: for me the absolutely least essential bit of Highland attire is that silly ornament called a kilt pin. Doesn't pin one thing to another, isn't heavy enough to weigh anything down and catches on every shrub by which I pass within a foot! I wear it, but it does annoy me.