Quote Originally Posted by Jock Scot View Post
...This "playing at being a Scot" is just a turn of phrase that the Scots use and should be regarded as nothing more. Although, as we now know, it does seem to rankle with some outwith Scotland.
I've taken this thought in and mulled it over for some months. There is a lot of truth in it, I think. I do play at being a Scot. Anything else makes no sense, for my various Scottish ancestors all came over in the 1600s and 1700s.

and yet...I still feel a link with Scots. Not the land, perhaps not the culture really, but the genetic tendencies perhaps. I'm grasping at straws, for I don't really know. I don't like Scots more than other people (and I've lived in many countries and travelled in more), so it is not a romantic yearning. But as I come to understand myself more fully, I see traits that I can only associate with Scots.

And perhaps the reason Jock doesn't understand this, is that he doesn't share that genetic strain. It's an old argument, nature or nuture. My mother and brother weigh heavily on everything being genetic. I'm not so sure; an interesting unanswerable question.