I have written several times before about Scotland in the wake of the referendum, especially with regard to the Scottish National Party and the double-edged sword of its success. I have a new post on the subject, over at the Scottish site Bella Caledonia:

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2016/01/05/the-road-to-indy-goes-on-forever-and-the-party-never-ends/

“For another year of Scotland’s seemingly unsolvable political destiny keeps pushing to the fore, demanding to be decided, yet Scotland is no closer to a resolution. It is doubtful that the Holyrood elections of 2016 will improve the situation. This is not because people won’t get out and vote. It’s not because the Scottish National Party will somehow lose their majority, which seems unlikely. It is that the sole vehicle for solving Scotland’s political destiny is in the hands of a party that can’t do very much about it. This inability is a reflection not of the tied hands of the Scottish Parliament with regard to its powers within the UK, but more specifically of the relative lack of will of the SNP itself. That lack of will is a product of decades of developments in Scottish society which have been heavily concentrated in these last few politics-heavy years. The SNP is both where it is and completely hampered as a political force by how completely Scottish society has become politicized.”

I am constantly reworking what I have observed and learned into something new. We all do this with whatever we choose to excel at, of course, but with writing, you get to see its progression quite visibly over time. Words are frozen in place, like it or not, even while we move ahead. So the only thing to do, as I indicate in the piece, is to reorient ourselves and try again more wisely and capably, and hopefully a newer and better iteration will result. That's the mystery of life and we wouldn't want to live it if it wasn't so.

Enjoy the piece and I will hopefully have more to come in the future.