What do I do now? A Scout misbehaves, makes a mistake, or even consciously does something wrong, and things spin out of control, now what? If you hang around long enough your Scouts misbehave, and you’ll will be confronted by this sort of incident, so what is your plan? I’ll discuss an incident shared with […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 354 Gender and Scouting
Should gender define Scouting? This week I want to discuss responses to a post I published last week about gender in Scouting: Girls in the BSA. The post garnered lot’s of responses both for and against the idea of the BSA becoming a co-ed organization, and I’ll discuss some of the objections in this podcast. […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 353 Two Key Ideas for Scouters
I’ll be brief, well, kind of… … join me as I talk about two key ideas for Scouters I hope you find helpful . This podcast condenses into one talk the answers I wrote to several common email questions I had this summer. I want to share two key ideas I have talked about many […]
Rules and Scouting Ideals – Podcast 331
We aren’t working to control the conduct of young people. We have a greater challenge; to form their character as defined in the Scout oath and law. Are the Scouting ideals in the Scout oath and law a code of conduct? Is it an ideology? Is it a religious text? No, it is none of these things. […]
Conduct, Character, and Scouting
Remember being young when the ground was constantly shifting under our feet? Remember wanting to be an adult but not wanting to be like the adults you knew? Remember how you wanted to change things? What an energizing, exciting, challenging, and sometimes confusing world we lived in! Our growing brains and bodies were in a constant state of change, every day was full […]
B-P’s Blog – A Scout is Thrifty
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. A Scout is thrifty. I THINK we are happier people now than we were […]
B-P’s Blog – Brotherhood
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. So long as (the spirit of of goodwill and co-operation is there; there is brotherhood). But, mind […]
Friluftsliv and Shinrin-Yoku
The next time you are out camping take a moment or two to be in the wild, stroll around and take it all in. No intention, no agenda, just be there until your mind quiets down and you begin to see what’s in front of you. The Norwegians call it friluftsliv ( free-loofts-liv ) or “open air life.” […]
B.P.’s Blog – Happiness
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. Two simple yet powerful aids to boy training towards happy citizenship exist ready to […]
B.P.’s -Blog – Scout Spirit
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. I notice whenever we have people rising up to improve our code of Scout Law, […]
Trophic Cascades and the Scout Law
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 […]
“I Must Exert Myself” Einstien
“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 […]
Believing in Heroes
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 […]
Paul Siple – Eagle Scout
Paul Siple, a nineteen-year-old Eagle Scout in Erie, Pennsylvania, was one of thousands who applied to join Admiral Byrd’s expedition in 1928. Byrd asked the Boy Scouts of America to help him select one Scout to take on the year and a half exploration of Antarctica. Local committees vetted applications and forwarded 88 to the […]
Inspiring Discovery
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 […]
A Hundred Years from Now
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 […]
Life is understood backwards; but lived forwards..
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 […]
Prayer of the Woods
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 […]
A Conspiracy of Love
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 […]
It ain’t ignorance
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 […]
Connecting the Dots
“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 […]
Goethe and the Scout Law
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, […]
Flight 93 – Ordinary American Heroes
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 […]
Seth Godin on Winning
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 […]
