Date: 10/25/08 18:30
In Response To: Acces denied 
(Pierre Arpin)
| |
Bravehearts' Kilt Forum
Re: Acces denied
Posted By: Chris Webb (ppp-70-250-151-62.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net)
In Response To: Acces denied
Date: 10/25/08 18:30
(Pierre Arpin)
Man, I'm sorry that happened to you.
Been there myself and I made the same decision you did. But the next time an invitation came up I went kilted anyway to literally force the issue. Nothing happened, nobody had the courage to confront me and nobody was ashamed or embarrassed. In fact several folks who knew of the circumstances came up to me privately and expressed their wish to have the freakin' balls, courage and guts that I had ... they were not ashamed of me, no, they were proud of me.
Afterwards word pretty much spread to friends and family that I was going to be kilted and that was just how it was going to be. I won't say that problem folks did not persist, they did and I nearly came to blows with my Step Dad over my kilts. It took a full three years of my being kilted full time for the last 'hold outs' to either cave in or give up. Today there is not a single person in my life who even blinks at my kilts, it's simply who I am now, a kiltman.
I've been kilted full time for nearly 5 years now ... I wear them the way I want, I wear them every single day, I don't even give a rats' ass what other kiltmen think of my kilts, let alone what the panted masses think. Of course, I really don't have to, after all this time I get nothing but compliments and encouragement. Just today I was kilted at the Fall Festival in Granbury, Texas, I was even in a damned short kilt on account of the persistent Texas sun ... lots of pics taken of me, nothing but compliments, hand shakes and positively worded questions.
The old 'hold outs' came around in part because I wouldn't cave in and literally forced them to be with me in public ... doing this forced them to begin to see me as a kiltman in the way the vast majority of the kilted masses do ... they witnessed all the positive attention I got, they heard the questions, saw fathers asking me to explain my kilts to their kids, heard me give honest answers to folks' honest questions. In the end the 'hold outs' have been the proudest of all of me because they know the crap they delt me, they know they were wrong to do it and they know from first hand experience that I'm a better man as a kiltman than I ever was as a pantsman.
Be encouraged. The Tyrrany of Trousers is in full effect and the only way to defeat it is to REFUSE to back down. Honestly, it is foolish, even stupid, to seek permission to wear a kilt, even tacitly ... wear it or don't because it is your choice, not theirs. But if you cave in and put on pants even once these folks will know that you really don't have the guts to buck them ... you'll spend the rest of your kilted life with them exerting pressure on you regarding when and where you can wear your kilts, even when you wear it it will not be because you want to, no, it will be because they are letting you.
Have a kilted heart and kilted hips will follow ... nobody is going to 'let me' wear a kilt, NObody. Don't let anybody 'let you' either. Don't wait for permission, don't seek permission, disregard out of hand requests, even demands, that you put on pants. Again, you made the right decision to not go in pants, even to not go at all ... next time just say F-you and show up in a kilt anyway. You'll be glad you did and, in the end, so will they.
Kilt ON!
Chris Webb
-- Pierre Arpin (modemcable044.225-59-74.mc.videotron.ca) -- 10/25/08 12:18
| |
Bravehearts' Kilt Forum is maintained by WDP with WebBBS 5.12.