Robert Burns

[macwilkin]

May I strike a note of caution? On the face of it, this is the type of subject that we should be interested in. Burns is a Scottish national icon and is revered round the world. There are more statues to Burns than Shakespear; his works have been translated into just as many languages. And, and, and ...

But, there is no one alive who ever met the man. Of our 10,000 membership how many are really Burns scholars? Precious few, I would think. If the majority of members wanted to add something to the thread, it could only be a quote from someone else, there would be no original thought.

Finally, there are quite a few Burns Fan Clubs/fora on the Internet, some serious, some just fun. So the subject is covered elsewhere and probably better than we could do here. This is after all a kilt forum and Burns never wore a kilt.

Regards

Chas

Burns most likely never did wear a kilt, but he certainly wrote about John Highlandman in a number of his works, and mentions plaids, tartans and so forth. I don't think it's right to so easily dismiss discussions of Burns here just because "he never wore a kilt".

I also find it somewhat disconcerting that those of us who are Burns aficiandos are also dismissed as "not having original thoughts", Chas. Burns is still very alive in his works, which even after over 250 years. He still "speaks" to people around the world. For those of us who love studying his life and works, there are always new ways to look at Burns -- you may not see the value of discussing Burns, but please don't easily dismiss those of us who do enjoy & admire him.

And honestly -- how many ways can you say -- "nice kilt!" -- before it gets old?

Respectfully,

Todd