Heres a memory brought to mind by The Chaplains War by Brad Torgersen. If youve read the book, youll understand why. If you havent, youre missing out on a very thought-provoking work. amazon/Chaplains-War-Brad-R-Torgersen-ebook/dp/B00NMNR2HG ------------------------------- That summer I had two weeks of Scout Camp: the first week for Order of the Arrow induction, followed the next week by regular camp. There were a few hours between close of the first week and open of the second. Many of the Scouts had family up for the weekend, so they went to visit their folks. I had family there for the weekend, and for both weeks as well, since my dad was a Scout leader; but Dad was off with the other leaders, so I had no place to go. And my gear was packed away, so I had nothing to read. I had simply nothing to do for the next few hours. So I walked up to the nearest Scout leader and asked if he had any work that needed doing. After all, we had just spent a week in Order of the Arrow, where the lessons revolved around leadership and service and work. It was on my mind. He looked at me funny, like it wasnt on HIS mind. Youre serious? Uh-huh. And bored. OK... Well... You see that long ditch over there, where they just put in the new pipeline? Uh-huh. You see that big mound of dirt alongside the ditch from where the trencher dug? Uh-huh. Well, we need all that dirt back in that ditch. Theres no way you can do that yourself; but if youre really bored, grab a shovel and make a start at it. And I did. Not that I got a kick out of shoveling dirt, but thats just how bored I get when theres nothing to read. Soon my friend Alan showed up. Apparently 20 minutes of his family was all the togetherness he could take. Watcha doing? Filling in this ditch. Why? I was bored, so I asked for something to do. This is what they said to do. Huh. Alan grabbed a shovel and started digging. Soon we saw two more friends, brothers Rex and Rod. A similar conversation took place, and they grabbed shovels. The next Scout I saw with a shovel wasnt anyone I knew. Nor the one after that. After that I stopped counting, but there mustve been 30 or more Scouts up on that mound, shoveling it down into the ditch. And by the time they summoned us to assembly for the start of the next camp, the only sign of that ditch was the fresh dirt where it was filled in. The leader who had suggested it looked at us, and he seemed at a loss for words. Finally he turned it into a lesson, kind of stone-soup-in-reverse. And he told us to sit there and think on that for a while. And I thought about it. I still do, now and then. And I count myself fortunate, because I got to be the catalyst for the lesson (but NOT the lesson itself). The lesson to me is: when good-willed people are willing to work, good things can happen. Even without orders.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 23:26:19 +0000
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