I was fortunate to be at home from the Mideast for the
months of April and May. This working abroad thing is fun, interesting,
exciting at times, and has allowed us travel opportunities we’d never had
before, but it is seriously wearing thin. I’m in my 5th year of a planned
one-year work abroad opportunity. Neither of us imagined the work here would
stretch until now, but the end is in sight and I’m looking forward to it.
Over the past few years Dana and I have gotten a lot of
comments like, I don’t know how you do it – I couldn’t do that! Sometimes we feel the same way. I’m not
trying to be negative here, just honest. Folks, it can be a struggle on both
ends of the phone line. We Skype every day to stay in touch and share our days,
our problems, our successes, and our feels. Thank God for the guys who dreamed
up Skype – we couldn’t have done this without it.
When I was home I had the opportunity to take care of a lot
of house projects, among other things. One of them was fairly urgent and we put a lot
of work into it. Shortly after we built our house I built a wooden foundation
for a metal shed. Over the past few
years it has deteriorated to the point it was pretty much wide open all the way
around the base and had to be replaced.
After exploring several options, we decided a concrete pad
would work the best and last the longest, I found a contractor who could
quickly do the job, and we started working.
You see, the shed was full of stuff, and everything had to come out so
we could move the shed, pull out the old wooden foundation, and prep for the
concrete. Once we had everything out we
knew it was the perfect time to go through everything again, and lighten the
load where we could.
Oh, we got rid of lots of stuff, but kept quite a few treasures,
moving them out of cardboard boxes which mice and bugs just love, and into
plastic bins. Eventually everything was sorted and repackaged and put back into
the shed! It was a busy week to get it all done.
Which brings me to the point of this post! I grew up in a little town south of St. Louis Missouri, and
my big brothers were Boy Scouts. Which meant that I desperately wanted to be a
Boy Scout too! Not Cub Scouts – no, that
was for little kids, and I always saw myself as being ready for the real thing.
When my oldest brother was awarded his Eagle badge at a council-wide ceremony
in St. Louis, it was one of the proudest moments of my young life – Wally was
an Eagle Scout, which is a BIG DEAL (really – it really is). When I got to join I was so excited to finally
be a Boy Scout!
There were so many things to participate in!! Campouts,
hikes, canoe trips, summer camp! I was a
headstrong boy who didn’t always pay attention, and I learned a lot of lessons
on those outings. Like, if you go camping for a week and bring lots of canned
foods, bring a can opener and a fork! I learned how to open steel cans with my knife, but
a cheap can opener would have been a lot simpler!
And like, if you go on a weekend float trip, bring more than
one change of clothes because you might get wet more than once. Oh yes, it gets
cold on a winter campout (well, it used to anyway) and it may rain and snow
within a few hours of each other, so make sure the tent has a floor in it and
you use the cot your brought so you, your clothes, and your sleeping bag don’t
get soaking wet.
And many more. I can laugh and smile at young Mark now, but
some of those were painful, embarrassing lessons learned the hard way. But they
were well-learned, and I came away from them better prepared for decision
making and analysis and critical thinking later in life. I learned that it is my responsibility to
prepare and take care of myself. I am grateful for those lessons because they served
me well as a military officer.
In amongst the stuff stashed away in our shed I came across
some memorabilia that I’d long wondered exactly where it had gotten to. Scouts
wear neckerchiefs as part of the uniform, and these were treasures for me.
One highlight of my scouting days was going to summer camp
for 2 or 3 weeks – I don’t even remember how long it was. But I looked forward
to it all year and was sad when it was time to go home. The St. Louis Area
Council opened a new camping reservation when I was in scouts – S-F Scout
Ranch, which had two separate giant campgrounds within it. This was the most
amazing place ever with lakes, streams, woods, and craft and activity areas to
earn just about any merit badge you could get.
The Boy Scouts of America grew out of the Boy Scouts in Great
Britain, started by Lord Baden Powell in 1910. If you are familiar with St. Louis you know
about Forest Park – a gigantic greenspace inside the city. In 1970 Forest Park
hosted the Jubilee Camporee to celebrate 60 years of scouting, and some 25,000
scouters camped out in the park over the weekend. This was an amazing event,
and the highlight was, if my memory is accurate, when Lord Powell, the founder of scouting himself, came
out on stage in a scouter’s uniform – shorts, knee
socks, shirt, and flat-rimmed campaign hat! And I still have the neckerchief
from the event – how cool is that?? (Does anyone else remember this event?)
I never got too far in scouts, and nowhere close to Eagle.
Most of my goals were met by joining and going on outings! One important things
was earned, and that was being selected for membership in the Order of the
Arrow, the scouting honor society. I’ve
long suspected my older brothers played a large role on my selection, but however
it happened it was another amazingly proud moment for me to be selected, and an honor to participate in the associated activities in the Shawnee Lodge.
Scouting
was a very important developmental opportunity for me. I learned so many skills
that were perfect preparation for my military career, which was the original
purpose in 1910. I learned how to survive in the woods, how to navigate with a
map and compass, how to plan and execute, how to use a canoe (don’t laugh –
they are tricky creatures and if you can handle a canoe properly you can manage
just about anything!), archery, and so much more. I owe a lot to Troop 483 in
Farmington, MO, and to my dad and brothers and all the troop leaders who kept
me safe while bumbling about figuring things out. I needed to make those mistakes and learn those lessons - thanks for letting me do it, and without stepping in to solve things for me.
Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my brothers, and all you guys out there doing your best with your kids every day!
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