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Identity
January 26th, 2010
I can’t remember if I’ve blogged about this before, or if I’ve just always meant to and never got round to it. Actually I vaguely remember some comments so I probably have already. But reading this post from World Without End yesterday and then reading this article by Eliza Carthy just over a week after seeing her and the Imagined Village at Celtic Connections got me thinking about it again. Added to a really interesting Ship of Fools discussion about roots, no wonder I’m pondering and musing again.
Although I am English through and through, since moving north of the border I have felt more ‘at home’ and ‘rooted’ than I think I ever really have in England. I listen to lots of Scottish traditional music and love it, there’s something in it that just touches my soul, and I think I have written before about feeling quite envious of many of the Scottish people who seem to have such a sense of identity and connection to their homeland (I know this isn’t a universal thing, of course, but it is much more noticeable than down south, I have found). If I had my way, I would stay in Scotland forever (with forays into other aspects of my ’soul roots’ like Romania every so often, and extended trips down south to see my folks of course!). I think though that I have felt a bit apologetic and also inferior that I am ‘only’ English, and I don’t think that has necessarily been a positive thing entirely. So when I saw the Imagined Village the other week, I felt really challenged and – for the first time in a long long time – also proud that I have a heritage and that being English is something that can be celebrated as well as something I am vaguely embarrassed about. And I can be proud of being English whilst also echoing (actually not echoing, shouting from the rooftops more like) Eliza Carthy’s most profound “Bollocks to Nick Griffin”. That’s very liberating.
I’d still choose to end up here though – even if we have to move away for a while (depending on work etc). I don’t know that I’d stay in the city, probably not if I had my way. But like there’s a bit of my soul in Romania, there’s a big bit of my soul that just soars here.
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Ooh, you went to Imagined Village. I’m going on Sunday, so exciting.
Isaw them on their first tour, abolutely fab. And what you said about them making you proud of your English roots really resonates.
Wonderful to read: and a wonderful feeling to have. Thank you for sharing.
I can really empathise with that about being German, a part of is embarassed about it and a part of me just loves it…