St Andrew's day ink

[MacBean]

I found some of the responses more interesting than the article. Some thoughts....

If 47,000 ex-English visited England each year (and I suspect they do), I wonder if you would even know they were there? In Scotland, with the sparser population, it makes an economic impact. I visit Scotland because I like it, just as I like England or Wales or Brazil, or any other place. Having Scottish ancestry does make some difference, but isn't the only reason.

The thing is that we of the New World don't have an identity in the same way that those of the Old have. We don't have traditions, and language, and history reaching back before civilization itself. Instead our identities are forged intentionally. If we pick Scottish identity, it is because we chose to. I do, my brothers don't, and that's fine. What I find harder to understand is those who berate New Worlders (Americans?) for affecting a Scottish identity. But then, I guess they get tired of noisy foreigners. As a child in England they embarassed me too.

[Nighthawk]

I found some of the responses more interesting than the article. Some thoughts....

If 47,000 ex-English visited England each year (and I suspect they do), I wonder if you would even know they were there? In Scotland, with the sparser population, it makes an economic impact. I visit Scotland because I like it, just as I like England or Wales or Brazil, or any other place. Having Scottish ancestry does make some difference, but isn't the only reason.

The thing is that we of the New World don't have an identity in the same way that those of the Old have. We don't have traditions, and language, and history reaching back before civilization itself. Instead our identities are forged intentionally. If we pick Scottish identity, it is because we chose to. I do, my brothers don't, and that's fine. What I find harder to understand is those who berate New Worlders (Americans?) for affecting a Scottish identity. But then, I guess they get tired of noisy foreigners. As a child in England they embarassed me too.

I felt a need to post a comment on that article. One thing the Old World Celts don't understand is that most of us aren't trying to be Scottish. We're trying to intentionally forge our own identity as New World Celts. It's nice to have ancestral traditions to draw from. And that's the point- we draw from those traditions, without trying to directly take them or to mimic them. In the post that I made, I mentioned that I see us in the new world as having a relationship to the Scots that is similar to the relationship that the Welsh have to them. We're cousins; not clansmen. When I meet a Scot or an Irishman, etc, I intentionally refer to him/her that way as a matter of fact, while New World Celts I refer to as brother.

[Phil]

The thing is that we of the New World don't have an identity in the same way that those of the Old have. We don't have traditions, and language, and history reaching back before civilization itself.

As a native of the "Old World" I don't see it that way. The thought that things around me are perhaps hundreds of years old never occurs to me. It is not a matter of living in the past, interesting as history may be. What does occur to me, however, is the fact that I belong to a single, distinct and identifiable nation whose values and traditions I was raised with and which I share with most of my compatriots. To be brought up in a "melting pot" with a bewildering range of values and traditions brought by immigrants from many disparate lands, none of which are allowed to prevail in the imperative for national unity, perhaps is the reason now for identifying with a distinct background and saying "This is where I choose to belong".

[KFCarter]

To be brought up in a "melting pot" with a bewildering range of values and traditions brought by immigrants from many disparate lands, none of which are allowed to prevail in the imperative for national unity, perhaps is the reason now for identifying with a distinct background and saying "This is where I choose to belong".

I think there's some truth to that, compounded further by the rootlessness of many folks here. I was born in Utah, raised in Chicago, South Carolina, Florida and eventually Georgia. Where am I from? Beats me.

I do know that my interest in my family's roots, and in particular the prominent Scottish roots, date back to a very early age, certainly before I was consciously aware of the "melting pot" and "rootlessness" issues... but perhaps they were playing a role even then.