Your Point

[Eamonn]

Of the twelve points of the Scout Law:

Which one do you find the hardest to live by?

Which one do you find the hardest to explain to a new Scout?

Do you feel one is more important than the others?

If so which one?

I don't think that there is any wrong answers or that any answers are more right than others!

This is a very personal thing, so while it might be OK to question someone as to why? They feel the way they do, it's not OK to "Beat up on them" because they see things differently than you might!

Eamonn.

[scoutldr]

OK, I'll go first:

 

Which one do you find the hardest to live by?

Reverent - especially this week. I find myself questioning my faith a lot lately. So I should keep the 33 VT families in my prayers? Why would God bless them now, when He failed to bless them and protect them on Monday? 'Splain that to me so I can explain it to an 11 year old.

 

Which one do you find the hardest to explain to a new Scout?

Reverent - because if a Scout has not had a religious upbringing, they're not going to have a clue what I'm talking about. And that's a lot more common than when I was a scout.

 

Do you feel one is more important than the others?

Trustworthy - because if I can't trust you, none of the others matter and I'd rather not be around you.

[LongHaul]

The hardest for me to live up to would have to be A Scout is Cheerful. I am told the frown lines between my eyes no longer disappear when I laugh. I spend so much time trying to fix the thorns around me that I have stopped appreciating the smell of the roses.

The hardest one to explain today is A Scout is Loyal. Trying to explain Loyalty to an organization that excludes gays and those of different religious principles can be a difficult task when balancing it with the other laws. Explaining Loyalty to a country and not a particular administration so that being Loyal to your country can cause you to stand up for specific acts you are not in agreement with. This can be difficult when the person you are talking to has few life experiences that he can look upon to relate to the topic.

LongHaul

 

[John-in-KC]

Toughest at the moment: Friendly. Just plain hard when the work cycle is 12 on, 12 off for a couple of weeks at a stretch.

 

Toughest to explain: Courteous. There are days I think "please" is almost a lost word.

 

More important? None. Absolutely co-equal. When you value any one over the others, you impose a risk of going too far. Some of the current difficulties in DC I attribute to taking Loyalty to an extreme, as an example.

 

Ethics can be a two edged sword.

[Lisabob]

Toughest for me? Sometimes it is being kind. Much as I may try, I tend to say what is on my mind and sometimes it comes out a little too blunt. To my way of thinking, being patient with others is part of being kind. And that's something I admit I struggle with at times.

 

Hardest to explain to a new scout? Hmm. Well, reverent, for the reason scoutldr listed. But really it isn't so much explaining any one point - rather, it is explaining that these points apply every moment of every day and not just when we're wearing a uniform or when we're trying to look good in order to get that scout spirit sign off. And maybe the idea that they still apply when we are tired, frustrated, angry, or dealing with someone with whom we don't particularly see eye to eye.

 

Most important? Depends on the situation. But the one I often find myself trying to help my son learn and really take to heart is the "cheerful" one. No matter what the circumstances, they can be made better or worse by one's attitude/outlook and it is so easy - but not very rewarding - to fall into negativity.

[gwd-scouter]

Reverent I think is the toughest for me personally. Mostly because my beliefs do not fit well into the predominantly southern baptist area in which I live. Also, equally difficult to explain to the Scouts in our troop as, while many of them are from fairly mainline southern baptist families and go to Christian school, quite a few others are of no particular faith at all, and we have one who self-professes as Wiccan.

 

The one point that I think is most difficult for the guys to really get behind is Trustworthy. Older guys seem to get what it's all about, but the younger guys seem to think it merely means telling the truth. My take on it is that you will do what you say you're going to do. You are the kind of person that others can count on. For Example, tough for me to explain to a Scout whose Dad volunteers to go on a trip and then backs out at the last minute - time and time again. Tough one to explain to Scouts who tells his parent(s), oh Mrs. B. said we should do this and then the parent says, Well, what Mrs. B. doesn't know.....

 

For me, cheerful seems to be the most important, but probably the most difficult to pull off at all times. If one goes through life with a positive attitude it seems that all other things fall into place - at least for me.

[Eamonn]

I find Obedient to be the hardest to live by.

I don't seem to have a problem doing the right thing but I hate being told what to do. At times I know I'm guilty of reading way too much into what people say and allow that to get to me.

For example. Somehow the District Tiger Cub Spring Recruitment has morphed into a Scoutoree. An all dat event where units present some sort of Scouting skill or what ever. The idea being that this will attract new members.

Our Quarterdeck gave this some thought and were having a hard time coming up with something that they wanted to do. The event is in a big field. They thought about doing a ceremony as we have a couple of new Scouts that need to be welcomed into the Ship. Setting up the Landship, having the Ship turn out in whites, would look good, but it would take maybe 15 minutes. They looked at doing a Boatswain's Chair race. There isn't any trees. Seems just about everything they came up with either needed something that wasn't there or they just didn't want to do. Tyeing knots for six hours didn't seem like a lot of fun.

The next few weeks are really busy for the Ship and to be honest I could do without this Scoutoree. In the end with a little arm twisting from me!! We decided that we needed to work on the boats anyway and even if it would be not as easy to work on them in this field it could be done.

Then we received a letter from the District Chairman stating that "All unit were expected to attend and support the District."

I being me immediately wrote back informing him that he had it wrong and it was the role of the District to support the units. He e-mailed me back telling me that this was a mandatory event.

With some help from me the Quarterdeck decided that we would go sailing that day.

I have a hard time explaining Cheerful.

Maybe because I remember and can't help thinking back to when I first joined Scouts in the UK and the "Same" point was "A Scout smiles and whistles through all difficulties". If you have ever smiled and tried to whistle at the same time? It's almost impossible to do!! I think it's OK to not be cheerful! At times hiding behind a smile and masking your feelings is not the way to go.

I do tend to put Trustworthy on the top of my list. It seems to me that without trust a lot of the others don't seem to fall in line.

Eamonn.

 

[Lisabob]

"I being me immediately wrote back informing him that he had it wrong and it was the role of the District to support the units. He e-mailed me back telling me that this was a mandatory event.

With some help from me the Quarterdeck decided that we would go sailing that day. "

 

LOL, that's exactly what my response would've been too Eamonn! Mandatory, my foot.

[scoutldr]

Way to go, Ea! If the units around here had been told "this is a mandatory event", the District staff would have attended it alone! There is no "district" to support. The district is just a geographic boundary. The only thing that would have been supported is the DE's performance goals. Not that that's a bad thing, but there's a more "courteous" and "friendly" way to go about it.