Bobcat Ceremony, Grandfather Passing, Wood Badge Weekend Two

Bobcat Ceremony

We had a massive Bobcat Ceremony at Pack 808 this week with twenty new scouts joining! This is our largest group ever and I was honored to introduce them to scouting. I can’t believe how much our pack has grown and I am glad to see scouting surviving in our area as our two neighboring packs have disbanded. We are approaching sixty scouts so far, doubling our previous size. I am truly blessed to lead this group and serve these youth. I’ve written about this before, but I do see scouting as a way to create a ministry, to serve others outside of my own family and friends, and I do see our scouting family as one. I did not grow up in scouting, but I see the wonderful affect it can have on young people and I am all in.

Wood Badge Weekend Two

My second weekend of Wood Badge is in the book. I am not ready to write about how much this leadership course changed me yet as I am still processing it. We learned some monumental lessons and my thinking’s shifted quite a bit. I think what surprised me was how much I grew over these five days and the insights I gained about myself and my role in scouting. I knew it was going to be spectacular when I signed up for it, I didn’t know what that meant for me at the time, but now that it is over I would recommend it to anyone else.

Grandfather Passing

My grandfather passed away and we attended his funeral. He was a retired Cincinnati fireman and served in the Korean War with the United States Marine Corp. As such, there was an honor guard from both organizations. It was really cool seeing his flag ceremony and presentation of the flag to the family. He died an old man who was mentally coherent through the end, an astonishing detour from what our family mostly experiences which are people dying young or completely lost to dementia/Alzheimer’s disease. I did partake in a final conversation with him before he died and he offered some interesting insights into life. All he really wanted was to be around his family at the end and he enjoyed seeing my two boys there. I wouldn’t say we had a close relationship, he could be difficult and adversarial, which is the overriding personality trait of our family it seems. It is the end of an era though as he was the last person of my lineage before me.