Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the Kilt isn't 'just clothes'.

[Jock Scot]

I have been reading this thread with a lot of interest. I am an American of mixed descent of which two of my many lines is Scottish (others include English, French and Danish.) I wear the kilt as an homage to those Scottish ancestors and as a source of pride for that part of my family history. I would wear my kilt more often but as I have said in previous threads it is impractical with my profession and my wife does not enjoy the attention (negative and positive,) that it brings when we are out.

I wonder what the Scottish nationals of this forum think of men like myself... When I wear the kilt I try to be respectful and follow the unspoken rules, similar to when I wear a suit and tie.

I lived in Southern England for a couple of years and knew a Scotsman from Fife quite well. I count him as one of my close friends. When he heard I was wearing the kilt upon my return back to the States he said (jokingly, knowing that a lot of truth is spoken in jest,) that I was silly for doing so as an American.

Jock and thescot, are we in situations like my own paying our ancestry and the Scottish Nationals a disservice or mockery?

I answer this question with the greatest of respect to all non Scots.

No, on the whole, none of you are intentionally paying your ancestry and the Scots a disservice or mocking them.Some of the ways the kilt is worn and the "I can wear what I like" attitude does wrankle though.

Now what I , your friend you mention and other Scots really cannot fathom is this. You are Americans, who make great play of your independence--quite rightly----so be Americans. Canadians, Australians, Dutch, German, Russian, French, English, Irish,or Wherever, they are all proud nations in their own right with a mixture of cultures and blood that go into the pedigrees of their particular nation-----just like Scotland. But your are not, however hard you try, Scottish. So why not represent your own proud nation?

Live in Scotland with a British passport, pay British taxes, shed your blood wearing a British uniform(I am not forgetting the blood spilt belonging to many nations in the many joint causes)contribute to Scotlands wellbeing and do that for a generation or two whilst not harking back(too often) to your old roots and then you are getting close to being a Scot. The same goes for any nation.Of course taken out of context this last paragraph is the stuff of major nationalist strife and I don't intend it to be.

If you delve into my pedigree, I have English, Norman, German, Viking, Scots, plus a few more, blood tracing through my veins. So a good mixture, in fact just like the rest of you and just like many of you, I try on occasion to remember my roots, but do I dress up as a Viking, a Norman knight, A German? No I don't. Why? Because I am a Scot!

However we all have a past and quite rightly some of us wish celebrate our ancestors and their achievements, but the way it is done outwith Scotland is not generally understood by the Scots; it appears to be all rather intense and rather "over the top" to us and it is this, I think, that we find difficult to comprehend.As we see it, why dress up as a Scot---play being a Scot---when you are not?