First of a Hundred

Today, I cast these bits into the ether and add my voice to the 100 Days of Scouting blog project.  I do this not because I have something noteworthy or profound to say. Rather, I want to use this project as a vehicle for getting my thoughts into the public arena...maybe this will start some useful discussion, help others work through some issues they are experiencing, or simply serve as an example (hopefully it will be a good example, and not one like this):

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Today there are 277 days remaining in 2011. Though it seems like a lot, this year will evaporate before our very eyes if we do not pay attention. In many ways, the lives of my children seem to do the same...it seems like only a few days ago when we brought them home from the hospital, or that they took their first steps, or when my youngest jump-started my return to scouting when he asked if he could become a Cub Scout. My, how quickly time flies.

In my childhood, I was a Cub Scout, a Boy Scout, a Brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow, and finally a former almost-Eagle scout.  I was a member of Cub Scout Pack 1313 in Geronimo, OK, a Boy Scout with Troop 133 in Chattanooga, OK, both within the Black Beaver Council in Scoutwest, OK.  Only a handfull of my friends were scouts.  It was a rarity in the tiny town where I grew up.  In fact, when I was ready to join Boy Scouts, my parents had to drive to two towns away to our arch rival Chattanooga to join a troop.

I loved being a scout.  Scouting took me places and taught me things that I would have never learned otherwise.  We camped in the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, at Camp George Thomas near Apache, OK, and even on private land owned by a friend of my scoutmaster.  I learned leadership, respect for the outdoors, and a huge helping of personal responsibility.    I even deepened my love of country, and honed my sense of right and wrong, and honor and comittment.  Though I didn't know it at the time, these were life lessons that have stayed with me...they are some of the most significant parts of the moral compass that I use to navigate the world. 

I hope that my Troop's leadership team is able to impart some measure of these values to the youth in our charge.  Most of all, I hope that those twelve words continue to guide my life, as well as the lives of my family.  A scout is: