Personal Reflection

You gotta have a cake! I am more interested in the bigger ideas of Scouting rather than writing about my own Troop or my individual experiences.

We hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards or so when an enemy rose up in front of us and started spraying us with a Schmeizer machine gun or ‘burp gun’ as we called them.

You probably can’t appreciate what your Scouting legacy will be a few years from now.

Within the next several hours of my writing this a few hundred, or perhaps a few thousand, people will comment on this Manifesto written by Seth Godin .

Homer:So, I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool.

This weekend a young man I know is getting married.

When Apollo spacecraft passed to the far side of the moon there were some tense moments in mission control.

I started blogging here to talk about Scouting in general rather than chronicle my particular experiences.

‘Don’t cast your pearls before swine’, don’t put things you value in front of people who reject the notion it has value.

Sometimes we get so involved and so closely identified with Scouting that we bruise easily.

Compasses point at magnetic north.

“The miracle is not to walk on water.

Blogging and statistics; it’s easy to get the cart before the horse.

This will seem mean spirited, but it is a theory that has been proven many, many times.

Haven’t we all participated in conversations about the way “THE COUNCIL” or “THE GOVERNMENT” or “THE COMPANY” spends money, earns money, wastes money and generally does what does? Something deep in humanity in general, at the heart of the American way of government, and suffused in our culture is an abiding suspicion that: Those in power (or seeking power) are at least part rascally, unworthy, dense and probably patently dishonest (unless they are my friends or I voted for them).

Our old brown earth has, once again, wobbled through winter and brought spring to the northern hemisphere.

Allow me a self-congratulatory moment as, with this post, the Scoutmaster Blog reaches the 1000 post mark.

Do not depend on the hope of results.

I was a Boy Scout.

I was never a Scout as a boy but I had a copy of the patrol Leaders handbook illustrated with line drawings of perfect campsites and campfires, of Scouts in perfectly neat uniforms lining up eagerly to listen to their patrol leader, cheering heartily, rallying around the patrol flag waving their hats.

I posted this ‘study’ to Facebook earlier this week.

In 30 plus years of Scouting this past Saturday was particularly meaningful.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

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.

We hesitate.

I learned how to not be afraid.

Once in a while a young, energetic Scout leader bounds up on my front porch here and says: ‘I have a great new idea!’ I grip my cane, stare over my bifocals and reply ‘There is nothing new – now get off my porch!’ They walk away muttering under their breath ‘ What a curmudgeonly, cane waving, old man!’ No one has actually called me that (at least not yet).

One of the real joys of working as a volunteer Scout leader is discovering Scouting.

Tradition is a form of complacency and innovation is a form of restlessness.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.

Scout leaders hear lots of interesting things over the course of a normal day (if there is such a thing) at Scout camp.

Over time, processes that seek to decrease entropy and create order are valued, but improving them gets more difficult as well.

Like a lot of people I was standing in the winter cold on the 20th of December at 2:45AM staring up at the moon.

I’ve hung in there long enough to enjoy watching some of my old Scouts grow up and journey far into adulthood.

Had a fantastic week canoeing in Canada last month.

in Scout Parents When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.

A brief discussion with a reader leads me to encourage parents who differ with the policies of the BSA to consider joining scouting anyway.

I live in a small town that is fortunate to have a lively schedule of civic events.

Scout Ken Ryan was scoutmaster of Troop 12 for thirty years and decided to retire the year I became Scoutmaster.

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.