Rusted Sky

Man, talk about an interesting mix.

Today was my day to come up with something for the Den. Pseudonyms will be used to protect the innocent.

I was supposed to do something on religion today for the Den. This can be pretty difficult these days, so I started out with the Cub Scout Promise.

I asked them what they thought their duty to God was - one said "Don't smoke!" The other answers were pretty good - pick up trash and throw things away properly, help other people, go to church and the like.Then I asked if anyone knew what the Golden Rule was. (And no, it's not the "He who has the Gold makes the Rules" we're used to as an adult - it was the "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you" one.) One guy said there were '8' of them - I said I wasn't looking for the 10 Commandments!

Two raised their hands and kind of garbled the explanation. I consider the Golden rule to be a pretty decent way of living your life - if you conduct yourself honestly and with integrity, you find life's a lot easier. If you lie, you find life more difficult because you not only have to remember what you told to whom, when the lie gets found out you find it's usually better to have told the truth in the first place and take your lumps for that - because things will be worse because you lied. We talked about honesty, and treating each other right.

Next I asked the scouts what their religions are. (One was Jewish, one was Methodist-Catholic, one wasn't, and two were Christian, methodist.) Then I had the kids tell me what they want to be. Abe is going to run a big company. Bart is going to be a geologist. Carl wants to be a vet. Dan wants to be a video game tester. Evan wants to be a pilot. So then I asked them what their favorite subjects were. And I was surprised at the answers...

All 5 said "Math". Huh. At that age, it would have been reading or science for me. But, good on them if they can manage it. (We won't talk about how dismal my math skills are.)

Then I talked about how God had given them certain gifts to help attain their goals. I asked them what the 5 senses were - and then I had their parents blindfold them. We sat a moement listening (we were outside) and I asked them to tell me what they heard. They didn't hear anything at first... then I pointed out birds singing, a jet flying overhead, the air conditioner in the building next to us... then told them that their senses were a gift from God. (Actually, more standard issue than a gift.) But what they actually DID with them was up to them. I asked Bart if the senses were important - he said "No..." and I asked him if he could be a geologist if he couldn't see the rocks. THAT was something he'd never considered - and he shook his head. I asked Evan if he could be a pilot - or Dan if he could be a video game tester if he couldn't see.

The point I made was that these gifts weren't to be taken lightly, and thie gifts could get them where they wanted to go. Then I pulled out some Easy-Spins and started assembling them - which gave the guys a good ten minutes of play while the adults talked about things.

Then I pulled out a blindfold and put it on one of the boys, and we played Blind-man's Bluff. (I suppose to be PC that should be 'Visually Challenged Person's Equivocation', but what the heck.) This is something the kids LOVED.

All in all, a pretty sucessful meeting... I was really wondering if it was going to come off okay, and it seemed to.

But there was a real surprise. Bart, in the past, has struck me more as the type who'd have "First in Jail for Murder and Mayhem" in his yearbook. Want to talk about anger? The kid had it in spades last year. Today, however, he was interested, attentive and alert - and polite. I almost thought about asking his mother if she'd brought the wrong kid!

So much for handling 7-year olds and religion and ethics. Talked about how many religions there were, how they should be honest and treat others as they'd want to be treated, and had some fun. No heads epxloded - and that was a good thing...

J.