WE FIGHT, WE FIGHT, WE FIGHT AND FIGHT AND FIGHT…
BECAUSE WE ARE FRIENDS!

The two Scouts in this photo were both stubborn. They argued about everything. If one said the sky was blue, the other one would claim it was azure, and azure was not blue. They argued at camp. They argued in the van. They drove everybody nuts. You can tell that, in the photo, they do not agree on how to build this fire lay.

These two argued so loudly that the Law Merit Badge used them as the case for the mock trial at winter camp in 2004. The loser said the jury was stupid. The winner said the loser’s lawyers were stupid.

Later that year these two came close to a physical altercation—over whose responsibility it was to pick up a notebook that fell off of a picnic table.

The Scout on the left is Paul, our third Eagle. The Scout on the right is Calum, who is currently doing his Eagle project. Last year Paul shipped out with the navy, and there was finally peace in Texas campgrounds!

Last Sunday, Calum gave a testimonial before our church congregation, and credited Paul as his role model and inspiration. I guess sometimes Scouting is working in ways we can’t see!

DOES OUR PATROL METHOD PASS THE SMELL TEST?

Recently, as we are now between the birth of Scouting and the birth of the B.S.A., Scouters have been harking back to the beginnings a la Baden-Powell. In one of his 1909 writings, B.P. describes the preferred arrangement of campsites with patrols separated by a hundred yards or more.

When we have good, functioning patrols, they naturally pick out an area removed from the staff and the other patrols. But when the individual patrols are weak, they try to establish their area where it’s practically in the staff site or so close to another patrol that the tent ropes cross each other.

At other times we have been so small as to have only one patrol. Though we have tried numerous ways over the years to keep the single patrol motivated, it has never been viable for long.

The patrol in the picture had me fooled. I thought they were not only mentally asleep, but stupid. What I didn’t know is they had been meeting on their own and working on Scouting skills—which vaulted them to near the top in Camporee competition. Now I know that the less I see of a patrol hanging around the staff campsite, the better.

Do you camp by patrols, always?

SCOUTS “WUSSY”?

Last week, a youth leader told me that they had failed to start a Scouting group because the parents thought Scouting was “wussy.” The parents preferred to put their sons in sports.

The strongest, bravest people I have ever known in my life were once in our Boy Scout troop. The young man standing next to the tree in the blog entry below is an example. He was 12 when that photo was taken. By the age of 15, Dale could bench press 480 pounds and burst a tennis ball with bare hands.

But what impressed me most was how he saved a life one night. He heard some commotion in the courtyard of his apartment building, and stepped outside to see the security guard being stabbed by an assailant with a knife. While young Dale didn’t exactly rely on Scout skills, he overpowered and disarmed the attacker and saved the security guard’s life.

Wussy, eh?
By the way, he didn’t seek at medal for that, but his family got a month’s free rent

YOU CAN’T EARN THE RANK OF EAGLE!

Scoutmaster Steve of Troop 68 in Melrose, Minnesota, posed a question about Eagle conferences on his Scoutmaster’s Blog today. Some of the replies spoke of Eagle Scouts “aging out” after their Eagle Court of Honor.

In our troop, however, becoming Eagle is like being saved. You can’t be “saved” and then not change your life as a result. You cannot earn Eagle, you become Eagle. And that requires a Scout of unselfish character, whose focus in all of life is helping others. He cannot be helpful in Scouts and be a jerk in school and be a real Eagle.

The young man pictured above, Luis Gonzales, is a real Eagle. He lifts people up. He encourages people. He continued his service in our troop after we awarded him the Eagle medal, after he was 18, to train new Hispanic adults who were starting new troops, and to write a Spanish commercial to promote Boy Scouting. He still visits me about once a month.

Luis doesn’t have to be this way. He could beat up Oscar De La Hoya if he wanted to. But he had to have a good heart to become a real Eagle, as he will always be. Real Eagles are not fickle.

On the Scouting trail, I occasionally meet a young man who was awarded the Eagle medal early, say, at the age of 13. Sad to say, though they wear the insignia, you will know them by what they do—vulgar language among friends, boasting, an arrogant air of entitlement—that tells you they are yet self-centered.

I only have 3 Eagles to my credit in 27 years of Scouting, but I sleep well knowing that these 3 are real Eagles, whom I can trust as my best adult friends.

Both our council and the National B.S.A. push leaders to rack up more Eagles because the increasing numbers look good. Is this good for Scouting, or short-sighted?

Did your troop ever award a Scout the rank of Eagle only to have regrets later? Would you send a Scout to an Eagle board of review if you knew he did not conduct himself like a Scout outside of your troop?

GOD BLESS THE SIMPSONS:
ANECDOTE TO NICHIFICATION

When I was a Boy Scout, back in the days of 8-tracks and lava lamps, we used to spend our idle hours on the bus or around the campsite sharing bits of pop culture. I remember we spent weeks trying to figure out the meaning of all of the lyrics in Don McLean’s “American Pie.” The script for the movie “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” was a sure-fire conversation starter well into the ‘90s.

Then something happened. I call it “nichification.” It’s the fallout of 400 channels and 100 Internet radio stations. There’s almost a niche for everybody in the country. All this bandwidth gives us freedom from having to entertain ourselves with whatever everybody else is watching, but the downside is that we find ourselves alone in our niche.

Ever gone to a theatre and watched a movie by yourself, then found out no one you know saw that movie? What good was it if there’s no one to discuss it with? Sharing our experiences with others brings us into the community. And it’s nice being part of the community—your friends, your church, your city, your Scout troop and patrol.

Today’s music scene is a nichification disaster. All of those people walking around with iPods in their ears rudely shut out the community surrounding them. So much mediocre music exists now that the odds against two people knowing the same new song are approaching certainty.

Now I’ll admit that the hype served up around American Idol is annoying. But I have to give it credit for bringing a little “community” back to the music scene. If a song is featured on that show, there’s a pretty good chance you can have a conversation with somebody about it.

Our Scout troop is talking about going together to the Simpsons Movie this weekend. We haven’t been to a movie as a troop in years—primarily because of nichification: they can’t agree on what to see. But for the last 17 years, the Simpsons has provided that common thread that entertains our Scouts. Everybody loves the Simpsons. Scouts even make up Simpsons trivia questions to pose to each other.

Thank you, Matt Groening & Company! Your parodies, characters, sound bites, and gags entertain us while we are Scouting far away from the television.

Okay, your turn…
What’s your favorite Simpsons one-liner? Mine are the sage advice from Homer: “Trying is the first step toward failure!” and Marge’s admonition that Homer “couldn’t predict six o’clock at five-thirty.”

MERIT BADGES CAN LEAD TO BIGGER DREAMS

Our second Eagle Scout, Max, took Computers Merit Badge at Camp Post in 1996. Computers weren’t as commonplace then as they are now, but the ranger there had it set up so every Scout could have hands-on experience. That week, Max developed a passion for computers.

Max signed up for one of the first computer courses offered in our school district that fall, encouraged by his experience at camp. They spent week after week learning the history of computers—you know, how they took up a whole building and so forth. Then they practiced on a cardboard keyboard. Finally, at the end of the semester, they were introduced to an actual P.C. But they weren’t allowed to USE it!

Thanks to a camp ranger who cared enough to offer a real computer class, Max went on to work for Compaq just before HP bought them out. He now uses those skills serving in our navy, where he services weapons guidance systems.

Have you ever had a merit badge begin a Scout’s career?