Brave, clean, cheerful, courteous, friendly, helpful, kind, loyal, obedient, reverent, thrifty, trustworthy
Quite a list, right? Putting aside gender for today, how close are you to being a good "boy" scout, considering that list of twelve attributes that every good scout must possess? Let me suggest each gets an equal weight of ten points, meaning a perfect score would equal one hundred twenty. Based on publishing almost 2,200 posts - and asking for reader participation here for nearly twelve years - I'm confident no one will put themselves out there unless I first take the plunge. So here goes:
Brave? Three out of a possible ten. I can think of only a few instances when I've put myself enough on the line to claim brave as an attribute. Clean? A five or six, at best. Better than some, way behind many others. Cheerful? Clearly depends on the day and my mood, but I'd be pushing it giving myself more than a six on that one. Courteous? Uh-oh. Four, maybe? Friendly? Seven, unless I detect a narrow-minded vibe or you try to compete with me. In those cases, I'm more in two territory. Helpful? Refer to cheerful directly above.
Kind? Ouch. Three, if I'm kind to myself. Loyal? Had this been the only attribute listed, I'd be an Eagle Scout before even starting work on my first merit badge. My only ten. Obedient? Two, but at least here I'm not unhappy with a low score. Reverent? Unequivocal one. Thrifty? I get a solid eight on that one, although the line between thrifty and cheap is a tricky one, isn't it? Trustworthy? That's another solid one for me - seven or eight.
My total score? Somewhere between 57-64. Got some work to do, although when one takes into account the scandals that have recently engulfed scouting, it has significantly less appeal today vs. when I was a boy. Putting that aside, what's your score look like? Which attributes are strong suits for you and which others need serious attention?
So tackling your impressive list here goes: Brave-9-I’ll try almost ANYTHING at least once (depending on the situation). Clean-10-Totally, always. Cheerful-5-like yourself dependent on the day & if I haven’t been aggravated by anyone or anything. Courteous-7-Will admit not always, but never go out of my way to be obnoxious to anyone (unless they deserve it, then can be creatively nasty). Helpful-definite 10-second nature for me FOREVER. Kind-9-Inherent in me. Reflected in my career as a caregiver. Try to see kindness in everyone. Loyal, Trustworthy-two 9’s-don’t know another way to live my life but to always keep these assets in my personality. Obedient-4-Tend to “walk my own walk” not always conforming, Tend to overthink a situation before deciding to tow the line or do something else that I think is the way to go. Reverent-3-nah, not so much-mostly irreverent. Thrifty is a 4-lots of work needed here, bad habits need to be reversed! Think that’s 74. Wow, surprised myself! But definitely gives food for thought on the areas that definitely need working on!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all this brings back memories, having grown up in the sixties and seventies as a Cub Scout and then a Boy Scout, we had to memorize and recite the Slogan, Motto, Scout Oath and the Scout Law. To this day I can still recite the Scout Law from memory "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent." And in my troop. just so we would understand the meaning of each of these traits, we had to be able to recite the defintion of each when asked from the Scout handbook. I still have a copy of my handbook and the definition of each these is as follows:
ReplyDeleteA Scout is Trustworthy - A Scout honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate his honor by telling a lie or by cheating or by not doing exactly a given task, when trusted on his honor, he may be directed to hand over his Scout badge.
A Scout is Loyal - He is loyal to all to whom loyalty is due, his Scout leader, his home and parents and country.
A Scout is Helpful - He must be prepared at any time to save life, help injured persons, and share the home duties. He must do a least one Good Turn to somebody every day.
A Scout is Friendly - He is a friend to all and a brother to other Scouts.
A Scout is Courteous - He is polite to all, especially to women, children, old people, and the weak and helpless. He must not take pay for being helpful and courteous.
A Scout is Kind - He is a friend to animals. He will not kill nor hurt any living creature needlessly, but will strive to save and protect all harmless life.
A Scout is Obedient - He obeys his parents, Scoutmaster, patrol leaders and all other duly constituted authorities.
A Scout is Cheerful - He smiles whenever he can. His obedience to orders is prompt and cheery. He nevers shirks nor grumbles at hardships.
A Scout is Thrifty - He does not wantonly destroy property. He works faithfully, wastes nothing, and makes the best use of his opportunities. He saves his money so that he may pay his own way, be generous to those in need, and helpful to worthy objects. He may work for pay, but must not receive tips courtesies or Good Turns.
A Scout is Brave - He has the courage to face danger in spite of fear and to stand up for the right against the coaxings of friends or the jeers or threats of enemies, and defeat does not down him.
A Scout is Clean - He keeps clean in body and thoughts; stands for clean speech, clean sport, clean habits; and travels with a clean crowd.
A Scout is Reverent - He is reverent towards God. He is faithful to his religious duties and respects the convictions of others in manners of custom and religion.
Based on these definitions, my total score is around 80-85.
Now this is a fun one! Brave - not so high, sort of in the middle: 5. Clean - very important to me: 9, Cheerful - I do look on the bright side of things most of the time: 7, Courteous - most of the time:7, Friendly - also most of the time:7, Helpful - also most of the time (I find that to be helpful and caring feeds not only the other but me): 7, Kind - I am reminded of the phrase one is supposed to ask oneself: "Is it kind?" - I do my best: 6, Loyal - my Mother always said you could count on my loyalty: 8, Obedient - not so much, I like to do things my way: 3, Reverent- similar to obedient:3, Thrifty- definitely. I had to be very careful with money at an early age and continue that practice. Although I do like to splurge and treat myself and now I am fortunate enough to be able to do so. 9, Trustworthy - similar to loyal but even higher:9. Total:80.
ReplyDeleteInes, Chris, & Anonymous; All three of you are MUCH closer to Eagle Scout than your favorite (but obviously more flawed) blogger. Appreciate the effort you all put into this and thanks especially to Chris for giving us the "official" definitions. Had I used those, I might have given myself a slightly higher score on a few. Still, I'll let my self-score stand and keep working. One small correction: Anonymous: your self-score was actually 79.
DeleteThanks Pat! Add Math to that list of things to work on!
DeleteGood morning, Pat. I'm always up for a challenge so .. Here it goes for me :
ReplyDeleteBrave - Not so much - Maybe a 3
Clean - Usually - a definite 8
Cheerful - Almost always, but still an 8
Courteous - 7
Friendly - 8
Helpful - 8
Kind - 8
Loyal - 8
Obedient - Hmmm ... I'll try a 5 (probably a 4 but ...)
Reverent - Another 'hmmm' ... Depends on the what/who - So I'll stay somewhat middle ground here - 5
Thrifty - As much as I would like to be better - 3
Trustworthy - 9
So that's an 80. Maybe a little more than I would have thought, but I was pretty honest with my responses so .. I'll take it.
Be well,
Bob
Hey Bob; Thanks for the comment and your honesty. Like the others above, your self score puts you a lot closer to Eagle scout than me. So, congratulations for that.
Delete