I was handed shorts!

[davidlpope]

On Friday night I went to visit a friend who I haven't seen in over a year.

[Okay, since I'm sure few people on XMarks (He can't accept you AND your kilt? Tell him to shove off! He's no friend!) are going to come at this from "the other guy's" point of view, I'll play a bit of Devil's Advocate here.]

Did this guy have any idea that you were into wearing kilts now? Or was this a complete surprise? I think sometimes we may get "righteously indignant" about others' "intolerance towards kilt-wearing" when we haven't done ourselves any favors in "shaping the battlefield" beforehand.

Like it or not, I find most ordinary people need some sort of point of reference to understand our kilt-wearing.

Here's what I mean by "point of reference":

Some people wear a kilt all the time, so they are "the kilt guy" in the minds of the people they ordinarily come into contact with- "He's okay, he just always wears a kilt, that's his thing, don't know why..."

Some people only wear kilts to Scottish-themed events, so they're "dressing for the occasion".

Some people wear kilts for more formal/special events, "his ancestry is Scottish, so he wears kilts for special days (St. Andrew's, Tartan Day, St. Patrick's) or holidays (Hogmanay, XMas, etc.)."

Without this point of reference, people are naturally left with the (not unreasonable, IMHO) question:
Why does some American, who wasn't born in Scotland, whose parents didn't come from Scotland, who probably has never been to Scotland, decide "all of a sudden" to start dressing like a Scottish Highlander in everyday life?



Maybe your "friend" just wanted to go get a pint of beer with you and hadn't figured on encountering your "moral crisis".

David