Scoutmaster's Minutes

*During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.*Each Sunday I’ll publish a selection from his writings in the hope that you’ll draw inspiration and understanding from his timeless ideas. IT has been said that youth is fortified by hope and old age is soothed by content. Youth looks forward with hope, old age looks round with content, and some day, when I grow old, I am going to look round with great content....

*During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.*Each Sunday I’ll publish a selection from his writings in the hope that you’ll draw inspiration and understanding from his timeless ideas. ENFORCED solitary leisure spent among mountain tops is so good for the soul that every man would be the better for such “retreat” if he forced himself to take it occasionally....

Emma Gatewood read about the Appalachian Trail in National Geographic Magazine”I thought it would be a nice lark,” she said. In 1955 at the age of 67, she put on her Keds sneakers, put an army blanket, a raincoat, and a plastic shower curtain in a homemade bag slung it over her shoulder, and headed off to hike the trail. She hiked it again in 1960 and then again at age 75 in 1963, making her the first person to hike the trail three times....

One of my favorite writers and noted American naturalist Aldo Leopold is, perhaps, the first to describe what is now known as a “trophic cascade”. Leopold observed over-grazed mountain slopes and connected this with the extermination of wolves. How trophic cascades work, and how they can be restored is explained in this video about the far-reaching effects of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone; Scouting provides young people the opportunity to understand how our own lives are woven into the fascinatingly complex web of life....

Eagles and peacocks are both impressive looking birds. Peacocks are known for their elegant, showy, appearance, and for strutting around and their impressive display of feathers; “proud as a peacock”. If you’ve ever spotted an eagle in the wild you’d agree they are an impressive sight. A symbol of power, nobility and freedom the eagle’s flight through human history is steeped in myth and legend. Assyrian carvings blended the lion and the eagle – a symbol that spread to Greece where Herodotus believed the griffin lived in the mountains of India, where it made a nest of gold....

This Scoutmaster’s minute is based on one of Aesop’s Fables. The Wind and the Sun were arguing. It’s a little know fact but, every once in a while, the forces of nature have an argument, and I happened to overhear them the other day. We all know the wind is, well, kind of a blowhard and just the other day the Wind was bragging about how strong it was, and even insisted it was stronger than the Sun....

Atoms are 99.99% empty space. Solid objects aren’t actually solid, just tiny bits of matter floating in an electrostatic field. Scouting is 99.99% values and ideals. Everything else is window dressing. Take the space out of atoms and things turn into a little pile of dust. Take the ideals out of Scouting and there’s not much left. We can’t literally see the space between atoms; but scientific study provides evidence it is there....

Here’s a Scoutmaster minute idea for your notebook: If you visit the archery range at camp this summer (and you should!) you’ll get the opportunity to shoot an arrow at a target. If you shoot six arrows at the target how many do you think will hit the bull’s-eye? Before you answer; an archer shooting in Olympic-level competition gets about 70-80% of their arrows in the bull’s-eye. How many of you will aim your arrow at the upper right hand corner of the target?...

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others…for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received....

A bit of planning, a lot of work, and the result! From Seth Godin You don’t get to just do the good parts. Of course. In fact, you probably wouldn’t have chosen this path if it was guaranteed to work every time. The implication of this might surprise you, though: when the tough parts come along, the rejection and the slog and the unfair bad breaks, it makes sense to welcome them....

It is natural to want to be like the people we look up to. We want to recreate the success they have enjoyed in our own lives. So we try to imitate them. It seems like the shortest distance between two points. Of course, we are trying to copy a result. What we often fail to see is the work it took to get them to the place where they could do what they do....

A Scoutmaster minute about discouragement: If a bird landed on your head what would you do? Run? Brush it off? Maybe both? Nobody can keep birds from flying over their head but we can keep them from making a nest in our hair. Everyone encounters discouragement. We all come up against situations that seem like we’ll never get over. We all have birds fly over our heads too. It’s not very likely you’d just let a bird build a nest in your hair (although after a few days camping some people’s hair may look like a bird’s nest)....

Here’s a Scoutmaster minute idea – Sometimes we need to slow down and concentrate on what we are doing. Sometimes we rush because we want to save time and we actually end up spending more time. What’s interesting is that taking more time to begin with actually saves time in the long run. Have you ever rushed to build a fire only to have to start over again? Sometimes we get distracted by the result and forget to do things properly....

How do you put out a fire? Adding more fuel is not the answer. How do you deal with anger, resentment, misunderstandings, conflicts and arguments? These are natural reactions that everyone feels some time or another. It’s not wrong to feel angry, frustrated or resentful – it’s how we react to these feelings that matters. Anger can actually feel a lot like fire. If we react to anger by saying or doing angry things it’s just like adding fuel to the fire....

Make Me a Boat If I communicate the love of the sea to my people, Soon you will see them diversifying according to their thousand particular qualities: One will weave the fabrics, Another will cut the tree in the forest, Another still will forge nails Someone will observe the stars to learn how to navigate, All will work as one. To create the ship is not just to weave the fabrics,...

Forest E. Witcraft (1894 – 1967), a scholar, teacher, and Boy Scout administrator first published in the October 1950 issue of Scouting magazine. I am not a Very Important Man, as importance is commonly rated. I do not have great wealth, control a big business, or occupy a position of great honor or authority. Yet I may someday mould destiny. For it is within my power to become the most important man in the world in the life of a boy....

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....