Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Søren Kierkegaard – Danish philosopher and theologian 1813-1855. There’s a great divide we cross sometime in our adulthood where we are better able to examine and understand the lives we have lived. Most of us who volunteer in Scouting have crossed that divide while the Scouts we serve have not....
Prayer of the Woods I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on. I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat. I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin....
Zero Bars Life lived simple Dreamy and warranted Jealous of people who blog about their one hundred things But wondering how we might live without 60 second coffee brewed on a Jetboil And still remain addicted to our iPhones and their gateway to a cluttered world. Packing light Driving to a trailhead Hoping for something other than an internet connection But secretly pleased to get one bar upon arrival. Bear spray ready...
Excerpts from Newark, New Jersey’s Mayor Cory Booker’s commencement address at Stanford University: My dad would touch me almost like he was trying to feel my very spirit. He would look at me and he would say in ways that are eloquent, he would impart to me this truth, he would say to me, “Boy, you need to understand that who you are now, you are the physical manifestation of a conspiracy of love....
Here are some guidelines and policies concerning politics and Scouting. From the JOIN SCOUTING form: Program Policies Chartered organizations agree to use the Scouting program in accordance with their own policies as well as those of the BSA. The program is flexible, but major departures from BSA methods and policies are not permitted. As a parent, you should be aware that… • Citizenship activities are encouraged, but partisan political activities are prohibited....
The heart of the Scout Law is Helpful, Friendly, Courteous and Kind. All the points of the Law are equally important and vitally important to Scouting. These four points, however, define the basics of how we interact with each other in the Scout Troop. Scouts who live by these four points of the Law will find their time in Scouting to be enjoyable and will avoid many troubles in life after Scouting....
It ain’t ignorance that causes all the trouble in this world. It’s the things people know that ain’t so. Edwin Armstrong , electrical engineer and inventor of FM radio. Sometimes in Scouting tradition and long practice usurp the way things ought to be. We tend to accept things unquestioningly as they are given to us. I am reminded of the story of the fellow who always cut the ends off a ham before he put it in the oven....
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 Parents of my Scouts are on an uncertain journey....
I’m a preacher’s kid, so I’ve sat through a lot of sermons, pretty much all of them longer than a minute. When it became my turn to talk at the close of the troop meeting, I tried to use some of what I’d learned in all that time. My dad was a really good preacher, but he got even better after a short post-graduate course with Dr. Reuel Howe at the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies....
EDITOR”S NOTE: Doug Metz is a reader/listener who’s story about ShelterBox is a great example of Scouters serving the wider community – he’ll be featured on Podcast 87 along with Mark Dyer Shelterbox Scout’s program director. Last summer my son and I visited Fort AP Hill for the 2010 National Jamboree. One of the exhibits at the Jamboree featured a large white dome tent that looked like a prototype for future habitats on the moon....
EDITORS NOTE: This is an excellent example of carpe minutea or ‘seizing the minute’ from contributor Larry Gieger. It also gives us all a look into the thought processes and keen observational skills of a veteran Scouter. What are you seeing when you are out camping with your Scouts? I, for one, am anxious to hear exactly how far a Gieger Mile is – do you use a Gieger counter to measure one accurately?...
The Scoutmaster minute is a tradition for sharing a thought or idea at every troop meeting. There are books and websites replete with lots and lots of minutes (here’s mine) but I have never really used them all that much. Many years ago I tried to have a formal Scoutmaster minute prepared for each meeting. I soon sensed that my Scouts were enduring rather than enjoying my orations evidenced by the many unmistakable signs of adolescent behavior that indicate you are being politely ignored; the rolling eyes, the vacant stare, the shuffling feet....
Here’s a Scoutmaster’s Minute on the subject of experience: You don’t lack intelligence, fortitude, motivation or common sense; you lack experience. You get experience from trying things out, from EXPER-imenting , from experiencing the results of your actions. How do you think the wild mushroom called the Death’s Cap got it’s name? Experience. Somebody told me that orange and chocolate tastes pretty good together. I think they do too. How do I know?...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) is an important writer in the German language and Western culture. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, and science and continue to be an inspiration. His wide-ranging thinking lends itself well to defining the twelve points of the Scout Law: Trustworthy Trust yourself, then you will know how to live. Loyal Love can do much, but duty more....
Nine years ago as the full extent of the terrorist attacks began to unfold a group of passengers aboard a hijacked plane made a choice. By chance they were on a very ordinary flight together, by choice they became heroes and arguably averted massive loss of life had their flight gone on to reach our nations capitol. In minutes they chose action over fear in the knowledge they may not come out alive....
Independence Day celebrates our collective and individual patriotism, freedom and potential. Robert F. Kennedy spoke of this potential in Capetown Africa in 1966: [M]any of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France....
From Seth Godin’s blog; A toddler wants what she wants, now. That’s a win. A little later, when we’re more mature, we might define winning as getting what we want at the expense of someone else. I win when you lose. And yes, winning still means now, not later. A demagogue cares so much about winning that he’d rather wreck the system itself than lose… What happens when you define a win as getting closer to someone who wants the same thing?...
The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books. Oliver Wendell Holmes I take Justice Holme’s thought as a simple statement of fact rather than a derisive evaluation of the vicissitudes of youth. Note that he qualifies his statement with ‘apt’ – he is not ruling out that some young men will take advice. When we sew a leader’s patch on to our uniforms we accept a few things about working with young people....
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was never a boy scout but no one has ever written more poignantly about boyhood. His contrarian, cross grained and curmudgeonly persona could not completely conceal his humanitarianism. Here are some of his thoughts applied to the scout law: Trustworthy “I am different from [George] Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won’t.” Loyal...
The Rudyard Kipling poem “if” is a source of inspiration for Scouts. If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated don’t give way to hating,...