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From: <>
Subject: Re: [SCT-INV-L] CULLODEN thoughts & Enlightenment
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 11:55:53 EST

In a message dated 07/02/00 7:12:30 AM Central Standard Time,
writes:

<< Regarding the Enlightenment "passing by" Scotland...
perhaps it just didn't fit, and couldn't get in.

My understanding of some of the principles of the Enlightenment/Age of
REason are that the mind was the means of experiencing truth--that
rationality was the road to a moral life. Wouldn't those ideas seem rather
laughable to a Highlander, whose experiences of life (ah yes, including
Culloden, but also weather, geography, the sights one saw outside one's
door, the consquences of having England as neighbor) would only contradict
such silly ideas that the physical experiences were irrelevant in humanity's
search for truth, and that if we all only thought enough we'd discover our
"moral" selves?

Becky Teague
>>
I am probably wrong, I often am, but would the enlightenment of anything not
be the spiritual acquisition of concepts, ideas and innovations etc.
We had our poetry, music, art, dance, and stories as expressions of our
identity and aura (for lack of a better word).
Our people made great advances in the sciences and medical arts.
Our architecture of the times was surpassed by none in its lines and
expression.
We traveled and traded extensively with other nations over the 7 seas.
Our religion was practiced, when the political church did not interfere, in a
milieu of peace and spiritual acceptance.
We made laws that were just.
We had a court system and codes of conduct accepted and practiced by all. Not
necessarily conduct of those the South, but codes non the less. Different is
not necessarily less or worse.
Our music and art depicted out hills and glens, the sea and the gulls and our
warrior nature. They were an interracial part of daily society.
Our poetry told of great deeds, of love, and tragedy.
Our stories told of our history and were always told verbatim.
Our dress matched and complied with our surroundings and life style.
We traveled and traded in many lands where today the racism we met still can
be seen in the language.
Our people went to distant shores and to the South and created buildings,
bridges, and other structures that marvel the world even today.
Many of our minds changed the world forever in areas of industry,
manufacturing, commerce, education, finances, politics, agronomy, you name it
and chances are there was a MacSomething involved.
Were we very interested in turning our Highlands into industrial areas of
soot and smell, no? Did we want giant universities and strangers running all
over the land? No. Did we want towering buildings? No. Did we want banks and
offices in every hill and glen? No. If you look today you will see the giant
oil companies don't come much farther north than Aberdeen. The government in
the South has tried to pollute our glens and hills, but we have stopped them
on most counts. With our dwindling population that may change soon, but it
appears that the new comers are as staunch as we were about saving this wee
bit of Gods smile they call the Highlands. We were neither, quaint, ignorant
nor were we a happy little folk. We were industrious, in many cases
brilliant, at least brilliant enough to take the ideas south and not pollute
our homes. When poverty was very bad we went to the South or overseas, and
yes it was one hell of a sacrifice, but look what it got us. You and your
decedents will have a Highlands to go back to someday. You will see the
kilts, feel the wind, walk the glens, hear the pipes against the wind and
rain. You will experience that sense of peace that one only gets when they
return from a distant voyage to the welcoming arms of home. Haste ye back and
we're nae away tae bide awa comes to mind. Perhaps we were the most
enlightened of all. We did not sell out. Or perhaps we have to redefine the
term enlightened to include the value of the land and the spirit. The wind
and the rain. The value of the human heart as it touches another's hand. I
know a lot of this sounds like romantic tripe, but if you have ever stood
with a bunch of Highlanders, each of us very secure in who and what we are,
you will know what I mean. We are each of us one in the other. Our survival
has not been without sacrifice and blood sweat and tears, but it has been
worth it when you consider where we are now. As old Thomas the see-er said
over three hundred years ago; "The children of the Exiles will arise and
claim their heretical lands." Welcome home to the most enlightened people of
the earth child of the exile. You are our value, our greatest value, you and
your heritage. Your tapping foot when the pipes are played, your wet face
looking into the sea on a misty morning, your sacrifices for your children,
your strength when times are hard and your softness to a wee bairn. The
ability to cry at a beautiful piece of music, or a poem, and yet the stamina
to fight for your beliefs and your freedom to the point of death. My dear
lassie if that is not enlightened then surely it is not I who knows the
meaning of the word.
DaveM.

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