What's your favorite Aha! Moment?

Sometimes the aha can come to both Scouts and Scouters.

Every year before summer camp, the fellow remind each other of important tips for the week. One of those is the importance of keeping food out of tents.

Years ago in the late afternoon one day at camp , two first year Scouts got quite a surprise when they went to their tent.

Responding to the commotion, the adults in the site discovered that a raccoon had pawed through one of the fellow’s gear.

Surveying the scene of the crime, we saw, under his cot, what looked suspiciously like pieces of hotdog from that day’s lunch. We asked the Scout about this.

Quite innocently he replied “I’m going fishing later. That’s not food, it’s bait.” We tried really hard not to laugh as we explained that even though he wasn’t going to eat them, leftover hotdogs were still food and should have stayed in the dining hall. As the realization of what had occurred, and why, settled in this young man became sad and then nearly inconsolable. We kept talking with him and eventually he told us that he was upset because he had made a mistake and felt that he disappointed the adults. Our attempts at cheering him up didn’t help much but eventually we thought to ask him a question. We asked this first year scout, “Why do adults go to summer camp”? He thought for a bit and said “You’re here for us” and after thinking some more, through his tears he added, “ And I’m here for you too”. He was getting a pretty big picture and to help cement the idea we used an analogy. We compared our situation at camp to the little birds in Africa that ride on the backs of rhinos. The bird gets some benefit out of that arrangement and the rhino gets something out of the deal too.

Everyone wins. The analogy just clicked. This young man visibley relaxed and said “Yes, we do have a symbiotic relationship”. Aha for the Scout. “And”, he added, “Just so you know, the name of that bird is an Ox Pecker”. Aha for the Scouters as we met the Troop’s newest naturalist…