Blood of a Scot

Originally, this was a saying on a shirt of mine. It is the best way to describe my heritage. Although the actual Scottish blood has been thinned a bit, I still feel closest to that part of my heritage than any other.

I do sometimes wear a kilt, actually, I used to wear it at least once a week to my Scottish Country Dancing class in Mill Valley, California, but since we’ve moved, I haven’t. My family name is somewhat unusual in that “officially” we are aligned with no clan (although, we married into a few, or they married into us), which makes choosing a tartan rather difficult. The tartan that I decided on is called the United States Saint Andrew’s. It was created initially for the bicentennial of the United States of America, and was called the Bicentennial Tartan, but was eventually renamed. It is the tartan shown below:

Tartan Day, which is the 6^th of April, is the national day (in the United States) set aside to recognize those of Scottish descent, and all the contributions they have made.

For a time I helped the St. Andrew’s Society of Spokane, and was even a board member. With our move, however, to Moscow, and my new path of ministry, something had to give. Sadly, this was it.

However, now that I am approaching the end of the road to my ordination education (assuming I do get ordained, of course), I’m looking at a new kilt with this iteration of the clergy tartan:

Last, but not least: in regards to the question of “What does a Scotsman wear beneath the kilt?” The best answer is, “Are you [wo]man enough to find out?”