A Traditional Father Tradition

The other night I attended a Boy Scout Court of Honor for my son’s troop. It brought back a lot of memories for me. When I was a kid, I was a scout. I went through the entire program, all the way until I was an Eagle Scout. The secrete to my success was my dad. My dad served as the scoutmaster for for myself and all my brothers. He made sure we went camping, learned our knots, knew first aid and could cook for ourselves. He gently pushed us toward our goal when we were dragging our feet. He did this for my many boys, not just my brothers and I.

As a youth, I appreciated the fun activities. Our troop was active outdoors. We would go out every other month on some hike or another. One of the most memorable trips I had was a 50 mile hike with my dad and one other scout. We hiked through the back county of the Sierra Nevada mountains to end up on top of mount Whitney. That experience turned out to be very important to me. During my transition from dependent to independent, I reflected on the accomplishment often. It was a reminder to me that I could do hard things and to never give up.

Now that I’m older and have the responsibility of children of my own, I’ve become aware of another thing that has stayed with me since I was a scout. I was taught how to be a responsible and decent human being. Every week we would recite the scout oath and law. It was rote memorization and at the time I didn’t place much meaning to it. As I reflect now, I realize that there were many times in the years past that the principles promoted in the oath and law came to minds as I considered the which paths I would take in life. That’s what I want to give my sons, as my father gave them to me. So you see, I had to be at that court of honor the other night. I was handing out the awards and presenting the troop slide show just like my father before me.

(To my father who is missed but not forgotten)

Footnotes:

Scout Oath:

On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mental awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law:

A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.