Balmorality

My Word Choice: Balmorality - the superficial idealisation of Scottish culture, particularly associated with the popularity and enthusiasm Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had for all things Scottish.

My Connection: So, initially, my first option for this challenge would have been balderdash, because I just love that word. But, the one and only Rachel Deeming got there first. Fair play. D.K. Shepard introduced me to Balmorality, as I had never heard of an actual word for the thing. I've known, of course, as someone born and raised in Scotland, now living again in Scotland, of the fanciful and romanticised, but often superficial love affair people seem to have with my homeland and various aspects of its culture. I do appreciate that my country is geographically and culturally significant and beautiful, but it's when people who have no real connection cling on to even the slightest of aspects of that culture, that it stokes my ire more than a little. You could call it gatekeeping, but, it does feel a little like cultural appropriation.

Balmorality

I understand the attraction

Of course I do, as Scotland is magical

to celebrate the distinction

full of many things to stir the emotions

But I must offer interruption

as a man proud of my humblest of beginnings

to your complete idealisation

all and everything Caledonian

Tartan's smart, but why the addiction

Frustration grows from your conception

Of what you cannot claim in its inception

you long to be like a true Caledonian

cling to customs of the true Caledonian

as an unofficial Custodian

blood boils at hollow adoration

Scotland is for more than just idealisation

Though it's quaint, and pronunciation

requires a distinctive brogue, I make a distinction

Then admire you can, by all means, the civilisation

born within our lowlands, highlands, and islands with realisation

Unless you've lived our struggles, felt the weight,

of what it means to bear this Scottish fate,

Appreciate, but forgo your shallow idealisation

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: Late entry into the B Part of Penny Fuller's wonderful A to Z of Unusual Words. The poem is 157 words long, so a little out of the limit. Not too far, though? I may have gotten a little cross, writing this.

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