Frae masel, tae masel
Mar 3rd, 2007 by Don Ledingham
For those of you not familiar with the Scottish Borders dialect this is a little gem.
If you are ever out shopping and you see something that you would like to buy for yourself - then you would say it’s ”Frae masel, tae masel” or “From myself , to myself” - Gill, my wife, uses it regularly.
I used this phrase this week in an adapted form when speaking to Scottish ICT Development Group (SICTDG), who met at Musselburgh Racecourse on Friday. It was my pleasure to welcome the members of the group to East Lothian and Karen Robertson had asked me to outline some of the things we are trying to do with ICT and education in East Lothian.
I wasn’t sure how my presentation was received as I had to leave early to get to a school for HMIe feedback but I had made a point about a key element of our development strategy being based around “Frae oorsels, tae oorsels”.
So much of what we are attempting to develop in East Lothian is built upon expertise which resides in East Lothian. This strategy has many advantages a number of disadvantages:
Advantages: sustainability; raises self esteem; promotes a sense of community; challenges the dependency culture; promotes confidence; encourages independence - and many others
Disadvantages: miss out on external expertise; small town thinking (There’s another Scottish phrase which captures this perfectly - “Here’s tae us, wha’s like us” and the associated arrogance that goes with such a mentality); groupthink - there’s only the East Lothian way; unwillingness to enage in national developments - any many others
The reality is that we would like to make the best of internal and external expertise whilst at all times trying to avoid the notion of “Here’s tae us; wha’s like us”. For East Lothian to develop it must see itself as part of a much larger whole both nationally and internationally - both in terms of making a contribution and in learning.
Anyway I’m off to the shops to try and get something “Frae masel , tae masel” (well it seems to work for my Gill!)
I would like to think (choose to believe?) that people active in “The East Lothian Way” sustain their level of animation partly through keeping in touch with external expertise. The well chosen links in many contributors’ posts suggest that this is the case.