Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement.
Who do we pattern our lives after? For the Southern gentleman, Robert E. Lee has been the “gold standard”. Today, we start a series of posts looking at the Boy Scout movement as a pattern for the Southern gentleman.
I was active in Boy Scouts during the mid to late 1960’s. My father was the Cub Scoutmaster when I was in Cub Scouts, and he became Scoutmaster when I was in Boy Scouts. My two brothers were also active in Scouting. Boy Scouts, at that time anyway, did a wonderful job of helping turn boys into men.
In this series, we will go through each of the key points of the Scouting program and see how they relate to the Southern gentleman.
Here’s a quick overview of this series:
The Boy Scout Motto – Be Prepared
The Scout Law – A Scout is:
- Trustworthy
- Loyal
- Helpful
- Friendly
- Courteous
- Kind
- Obedient
- Cheerful
- Thrifty
- Brave
- Clean
- Reverent
The 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, mentally awake, and morally straight.
Like any man who was a Boy Scout, I did not have to look those up – they are burned into my memory from repeating the Scout Motto, Scout Law, and Scout Oath at each meeting. Any man aspiring to live as a Southern gentleman would do well to adopt the Boy Scout Motto, Law, and Oath as their own. No one starts their life from scratch – we choose people and ideals to pattern our lives after. The Scouting pattern is what this series will explore.
Flying is not my favorite way to travel — I think I have fear because I don’t fly often. My family and I were on a flight where more than half of the plane were Eagle Scouts and their leaders going on a trip. That was a more relaxed flight for me because I figured that if something happened the Scouts would know what to do and take care of us
I am not much of one for travel of any sort, but I pretty much quit any flying once the TSA got involved.
I suspect that it was also a more relaxed flight because, while they’re still boys and are all that comes with it, they have the self discipline that comes with the understanding that that’s what men do, and they strive to graduate from boys to men.