So many of us in Appalachia are descendants of people who came from Scotland (and Ireland). The chain of events that led to this is the usual amalgamation of hard times, mean politicians, and wealth hoarding at the expense of others. Start with the Reformation, work your way through Glencoe, and let the Highland Clearances put your ancestor on a coffin ship (or get run out of Ireland by an angry mob of people from the other religion).

It’s kind of romantic, the idea that we came from people seeking freedom, land, all the things. Every time we stop in Helmsdale to show the Americans on our tour the Emigrant Statue it makes me feel gloomy.

The statue was created by Gerald Laing after being commissioned by Dennis Macleod, a native of Helmsdale who made his fortune as an emigrant in South Africa. (Diamond mines, since you ask).

There is something meta about that.

The statue shows the father looking forward into the future, the son looking at his father with a worried yet trusting face. The mother cradles an infant in her arms. And the mother is the one looking back.

Is she resigned? Is she furious? Is she making an internal vow that her children will be safe no matter what? That she will keep the family together? That she personally will come back one day?

Who knows? And who knows how often this story will repeat: someone with a lot wants what little you have, so they kick you off your land and take it from you, supported by legal principles created by them in the first place.

Sigh.

She’s going to sacrifice everything so her children will make it. She’s going to be resilient. She has no other choice, and down through history her story repeats. Celebrating resiliency to me in current times almost feels like complicity. Why did she have to be resilient? Why couldn’t she stay on her land instead of clearing off so the local laird could raise sheep there? How much money does a rich man need, and how often do the rest of us have be resilient to give it to them?

Just asking.