on my honor...
One of our youth at church was having his Board of Review for the rank of Eagle Scout. I was excited for him, and genuinely grateful to be a part of the process. We had talked for the last three years about what he should do for his project. After considering infinite options of wooden memorials-most-suited-for-sitting-in-thoughtful-reflection, he chose to go another route.
The truth is, as Eagle projects go, benches are a dime a dozen. Then there is the requisite amphitheater at the local church, which seems a good idea the week of Vacation Bible School, but languishes in anonymity the other 51 weeks of the year. The "prayer garden" I fashioned at the church of my youth now sits in total disrepair--the flower beds reclaimed by the crabgrass--a few boxwoods the lone sentinels to a summer of planning and landscaping.
The scout in question had opted to do what was, for him, the harder thing. Through strategic planning and multiple trips, clothes were gathered and distributed, drinks and snacks purchased and passed out to various persons living on the streets of Atlanta, in the shadow of the lavish gold dome of the state capital.
Admittedly, the project was unusual, even by the District Chairman's admission. He advised us that these kinds of things "rarely get approved" but that it seemed in keeping with the ideal that a boy wishing to attain the rank of Eagle Scout ought to exercise leadership in diagnosing an area of service and leading others to join the process.
The result was ultimately successful--he was granted the rank of Eagle Scout, as much on the content of his character and leadership as on the project itself. There were any number of emotions that came--from excitement and pride for his accomplishment, to nostalgia of my own (and pretty extensive) experience in Scouts, to suddenly recalling the meaning of badges and insignia like a long-lost foreign language class from high school.
Moreover, I thought about the worth of Scouting. As the officiant struggled over the names of some of the candidates, I remembered that Scouts was the first place I met Muslims and Hindus and learned that I could call them "friends". It was the only place crazy enough to think taking a bunch of 6th-12th graders out in the middle of woods was a good idea.
The most telling thought, however, didn't come from my own meticulous observations, but from the candidate himself. When asked about what he had learned in regards to leadership, he remembered being a sixth-grade tenderfoot, suddenly thrown in a newly formed patrol of other sixth graders who were tasked with selecting someone to lead them--to be a representative to the troop. He laughed and shrugged a little, but he acknowledged that being selected and trusted as a leader as a sixth-grader had something to do with his leadership now--it made him step up and realize he could help lead and serve others.
Scouting has a long and storied history. The uniforms are flattering to no one and all to often it can be a hindrance when trying to climb the adolescent social ladder. It has a cadre of Eagle Scouts as diverse as Gerald Ford and Jimmy Stewart, Steven Spielberg and Ross Perot. Great Scouts have gone on to lead battle, lead congregations, lead nations, and even lead us to the poor (Muhammud Yunus, Nobel Prize Winner for work in micro-lending).
It has shaped any number of individuals to be better leaders--to think of themselves less and others more. I would contest that it has done so because it is the only place that trusts a sixth grade boy to lead a bunch of other sixth-graders.
I work with youth all the time. When a sixth-grade boy "promotes" to the youth group at our church, I watch them awkwardly adjust to this new adolescent status. And despite all that yearning to be older and simultaneously younger--the tension between the big kids inviting you to play Xbox when you'd rather run on the playground--I can honestly say, I wouldn't expect him to do anything else--to be anything else. I certainly wouldn't expect him to lead.
And that's where Scouts is on to something. It pushes boys-barely-becoming-men to do more than they would think themselves capable of doing. It may sound cliche, but this is not bare-chested, honor-bound, Braveheart leadership. Those guys don't last long in Scouts. It's the quiet leaders--the ones who listen first, then talk--the ones who stoop to help, who sweat first and eat last--the ones who are only satisfied when everyone else is satisfied.
In my youth group, our sixth graders don't get that chance. They're captive to the influence of senior-high kids and the examples they set. No one's pushing them to be more, to do more--to find the leader that lurks somewhere beneath the mop of hair and awkward-fitting clothes. That's happening at a troop meeting across town--not here. But maybe it should be...
