A Scout is courteous. A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. She knows that using good manners makes it easier for people to get along.

Bad manners are cool, they always have been. It has always been cool (at least to some people) to rebel against society, to challenge expectations, to be an outsider, a nonconformist. (Funny that nonconformists mostly conform to certain manners of dress and attitude.)

But courtesy is not simply good manners, one may have good manners yet be extraordinarily discourteous. Courtesy is a heartfelt expression of respect and consideration. Respect for the different ways we express ourselves and consideration for our innate desire to be understood, to belong.

And I want to commend the Scouts from this weekend’s campout for being Courteous.

from ScoutmasterCG.com

Loyal – is a devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. A couple of antonyms are infidelity and treachery

So what does that really mean.

Let me tell you a Tale of Two Bands:

U2 – U2 was founded by Larry Mullen Jr. – at age 14, he posted a note on the school bulletin board saying something to the effect of “drummer seeks musicians to form band.” Shortly thereafter 7 boys met at Larry’s Kitchen table. He later described it as “‘The Larry Mullen Band’ for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge.

Within a couple of weeks two boys found that they didn’t have the skills to keep up and dropped out.

One boy was older than the other 4 and when he went to college, he faded out of the band. So in 1978 the band U2 locked in with 4 members. Today they’re still going with the same line up and release 19 albums and have sold 175 million records.

Smashing Pumpkins – They were founded by Billy Corgan in 1988. In 1993 the band had their major break with the album Siamese Dream, it was followed with another smash hit in 1997. By 2000 the band had broken up.

Why the difference:

Loyalty – to each other, to a larger ideal, U2 is loyal to each other. The best external gauge of this is that U2 credits everyone in the band for writing songs (which impacts how they are paid). They recognize that the great contributions of certain members are not possible without the environment and smaller contributions of the others.

Loyalty to an ideal – from early one U2 has tried to make the world a better place by using their music for good, many songs bring attention to injustice, some songs are about visions of a better place and goodness.

Smashing Pumpkins were not the same, for Siamese Dream most of the band was credited for the writing, but for the follow up Billy only credited himself. Nor was there the same commitment to a higher ideal.

So, what does this have to do with Scouting. Well, we have a higher ideal that we’ve all committed to They are encapsulated in the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, and the Outdoor code that we recite at each meeting. We also have a commitment to each other. First in our Patrols and Troop then to our brothers and sisters in Scouting.