Meeting Point: Homecoming Scotland 2009

Sunday 10 May 2009

Homecoming Scotland 2009

In 2009 Scotland celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of its national poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). Homecoming Scotland 2009 is a country-wide programme of over 300 events and activities that, from Burns' Night (25 January) to St Andrew’s Day (30 November), will show Scotland's great contributions to the world. Click here for more information.

This is an advert featuring Dougie MacLean’s classic song ‘Caledonia’, the song chosen to celebrate the event, not just because of the lyrics, but also because it’s a well loved anthem for many Scots. It is sung by well-known Scottish actors, sports people and musicians. (In order of appearance -Amy MacDonald, Chris Hoy, Brian Cox, Sam Torrance, Eddi Reader, Kelly Brown and Thom Evans, Sandi Thom, Sir Sean Connery and Lulu)

Lyrics (Full song):

I don't know if you can see
The changes that have come over me
In these last few days, I've been afraid that I might drift away.
I've been tellin' stories; singing songs
That make me think about where I've come from
That's the reason why I seem so far away today.

Let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm goin' home

But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had.

I have moved and I've kept on movin',
Proved the points that I needed provin',
I've lost the friends that I needed losin';
Found others on the way.

I've kissed the girls and left them crying
Stolen dreams, yes, there's no denying
I've traveled hard sometimes with conscience flyin'
Somewhere in the wind.

Let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm goin' home

But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had.

Let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm goin' home.

But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had.

Previous quotes

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." (Groucho Marx) (1890 - 1977)

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
(John Lennon) (1940-1980)

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."
(Henry David Thoreau) (1817 - 1862)

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
(Sir Winston Churchill) (1874-1965)

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
(Douglas Adams) (1952 - 2001)

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." (Oscar Wilde) (1854-1900)

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

"There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great."
(Gilbert Keith Chesterton) (1874-1936)

"The more often Man feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel" (C.S.Lewis) (1898-1963)

"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not."
(Mark Twain) (1835 - 1910)

"Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time."(Thomas Carlyle) (1795 - 1881)

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." (Isaac Newton) (1642-1727)

"Words strain,
Crack, sometimes break,under the burden,
Under the tension, slip,slide,perish
Decay with imprecision,will not stay in place,
Will not stay still"
(T.S.Eliot) (1888-1965)

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."
(Bertrand Russell) (1872 - 1970)

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." (Martin Luther King Jr.) (1929-1968)

"I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy." (Ursula K. LeGuin) (1929- )

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." (Edgar Allan Poe) (1809 - 1849)

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." (Lewis Carroll) (English author) (1832-1898)

"Even death is unreliable: instead of zero it may be some ghastly hallucination, such as the square root of minus one." (Samuel Beckett) (British author) (1906-1989)

"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tries, and a touch that never hurts." (Charles Dickens) (English novelist) (1812 - 1870)

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all."(Emily Dickinson) (1830 - 1886)

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
(Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803 - 1882)

"Eternity is really long, especially near the end." (Woody Allen) (1935 - )

“Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.” (Billy Wilder) (1906-2002)

"All other things to their destruction draw,
Only our love hath no decay;
This no tomorrow hath nor yesterday.
Running it never runs from us away,
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day."
(John Donne) (1572-1631)

"Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think." Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803 - 1882)

"There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and politics without principle."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

“I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.” Leonard Cohen (1934 - )

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts..."
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

"More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us." George Elliot (1819-1880)

"A real book is not one that we read but one that reads us." W.H. Auden (1907-1973)