Today I got really annoyed

**Derek** · 13th October 05, 08:44 AM

As I walked through the churchyard today I passed a retired gentlemen who I have seen several times at a distance but never to speak to. He said to me with fire in his tongue 'Why are you always wearing that silly thing. Whenever I see you, you have the thing on'. I saw red I'm afraid and replied 'To annoy people like you and your stupid mentality .. have a nice day'. Thats a first for me replying that way, but I felt I had to. The guy has got some serious deep rooted problems I think. Now that I've calmed down and poured a cold beer, I'm feeling a bit guilty in speaking to him like that.
Derek

toadinakilt · 13th October 05, 08:49 AM

Yeah...blowing up never helps. Unfortunately...

Sometimes, though, you need to fight fire with fire. Silly thing indeed...

**Bob C** · 13th October 05, 08:57 AM

Do NOT feel guilty. The guy had that much, and more, coming to him.

**jjoseph** · 13th October 05, 09:06 AM

People can focus their discontent on the oddest things.

I had a similar experience after mass one day, although not for kilting.... I was wearing slacks and a T-shirt and this older gent decides to complain to me that I was being insulting to God. Having no idea what he was on about, I asked him what he meant and he went off on how "young people" (in this case nearly 40, LOL) should be wearing ties and button downs. You should have heard this guy go on and on as if I had just violated his daughter..
But it was sOOOO worth it....

The delicious part was seeing my usually so diginified rector, standing in his robes behind this guy, wildly waving his arms, hopping up and down and making the gestures for "oh geez, please just ignore him, he's addled". Seeing that, and being unsure if the old fella's cheese might have just slid a bit too far off the cracker, had me somewhere between seeing red and bursting into hysterical laughter....

Sounds like you ran into a similar unhappy soul. Glad you gave him something to think about. It might get through. You never know.

**bubba** · 13th October 05, 09:14 AM

I might have told him we all insult God by wearing clothes at all since He created us without any.

**flyv65** · 13th October 05, 09:30 AM

It's always easy for me to think of a wity, semi-polite reply after a situation such as this occurs, but rarely during one. How about "I wear it because it pleases me to do so; its a pity you have nothing to be pleased about"...or, "I wear it because I find pants to be ridiculous. How can you stand them"? I do understand your regret at responding in the fashion you did-I try very hard to hold my tongue on occaission, but I do *slip* every now and again with similar regrets.

Bryan...don't beat yourself up over it...

**GMan** · 13th October 05, 10:45 AM

Derek,

You never know what people are going to say, and you can usually tell by the tone of their voice that they may want to put you down for being different. You handled it better than I would have done.

**Rigged** · 13th October 05, 10:53 AM

A fine response under the circumstances.

**Graham** · 13th October 05, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by bubba

I might have told him we all insult God by wearing clothes at all since He created us without any.

Not so, Man was created clothed with something better than even kilts - Light.
Adams disobedience brought about his nakeness, or the removal of that Light.

God is only insulted by exposing our nakedness (other than to our wives) because it exposes our sin.
Yes I know others will disagree, but I don't care. That's what the Book says.

Derek, sorry to take away from your thread.
I would say this guy has real problems from his past, whereas you have the joy of the freedom of the kilt.

Even Jesus got angry a couple of times so don't feel bad. Just "don't let the sun go down on your anger". This is a great health principle. Carrying anger into the night only damages ourselves.

The world is full of twits!