Quote Originally Posted by Raphael
Kilts are just the extension of our heritage and/or personality. No more. No less.
If this is the case then how do we explain the existence of this forum, its passions, its disagreements, its evolving language, its growth, its startling array of moving stories of the kilting experience?

For guys like us, guys who have been kilting so long or so much that the newness has worn thin, it seems that kilts simply drift into the same benign and meaningless catagory of clothing as every other mundane thing in our closets. But for those who come here for information, who post with joy the arrival of their first kilt, the kilt is much more.

Kilting is an adventure, a foray into the often unexplored forrest of all things different, at least where clothing is concerned. Kilting for many is a brave departure from the sometimes enforcable expectations of family, mates, friends and coworkers ... bosses. Kilting becomes mundane only when the kilted man grows beyond all that has kept him unkilted in the past.

Raphael is right, it does eventually become just an extension of our heritage and/or personality ... but remember when it was more than that when talking with or writing to those for whom kilts are new. I know what Raphael means, even now I'm wearing a pair of running shorts I've had for 17 years ... there was a time when I wouldn't write about kilts unless I was wearing one at the time, a matter of honor or honesty, I guess.

I do still remember, though, when kilts were new to me, shocking to my family, bewildering to my old friends. Kilts still have meaning beyond just being a piece of clothing, it's just that I'm so used to them now that there is little left to experience for the first time. It's refreshing to me to read the posts of those who are new to all this, it gives me back some of the excitement I've lost through the routine of a thousand days of kilting.

All the Best and Kilt On.

Chris Webb