quote of the week- wisdom

our key to freedom lies in your power to control your thoughts.
- Tim Connor

Wisdom is being true to our inner self - thus bringing harmony and peace
into our lives. It's discovering a new idea or solution that meets everyone's needs.
Wisdom is also honoring people and caring about their rights. It is reflected in
the courtesy with which we treat others. Enjoy the following wisdom.

It is no longer enough to be smart -- all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.

To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom.

Insight, I believe, refers to the depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, side by side, learning by letting them speak to one another.

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616
Great Alaska COuncil
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
NSJ '05 WSJ '07 Philmont AA '08

The Power of the Scout Sign

Here is a short little story about the power of the Scout Sign. Remember the sign is something that people will recognize that, that person has been in scouting whether or not you are in uniform. So here it is.

After having been around scouting for a few years it is not very hard to pick up various habits. Reciting an oath has been one of them. On one occasion, not too long ago, a seasoned veteran of the New York City Police Department was being sworn in at a Grand Jury Proceeding. The officer raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth ...all the time holding his pinkey with the thumb of his righthand in the scout sign. The officer realized it almost immediately but not before the district attorney noticed and commented, " officer, I think you've just increased your credibility a 100 fold with this grand jury". Such is the effect of the scout sign. It has great meaning and symbolism for truth and justice. And so it should!

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616
Great Alaska COuncil
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
NSJ '05 WSJ '07 Philmont AA '08