2023-01 Difficult Roads

Today we say hello to the very first day of the year 2023. For the past 2 years, rather than displaying ads for items that are on sale, our local grocery store has placed inspirational messages on the signs along the outside of the building. Yesterday as I pulled to get some last minute items for our New Year's Eve celebration, I read the following. “ Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” I kept thinking about this sentence as I was walking through the isles and some of the beautiful destinations that I personally have explored this past couple of years.

Sequoia National Park comes to mind as the road to reach the park is one that will push your vehicle to its limits with the steep and windy road. But hugging one of those massive redwoods after enduring the long hard road is totally worth it.

Timpanogos Caves inside Mt. Timpanogos is another one that comes to mind. Even though the hike up to the cave is only 2.5 miles, it is a hike that will push your body to its limits. After you reach the cave opening, and catch your breath for about 20 minutes so your heart doesn’t jump out of your chest, the beauties of all the stalagmites and stalactites along with the Heart of Timpanogos will take your breath away again.

Ruth Lake is another hidden gem that we discovered inside the Uinta National Forest along the Mirror Lake Hwy. The elevation is pretty high up there which brings its own challenges with breathing, headaches, and fatigue and the trail is constantly up and down throughout the 3 mile round trip. But the blue high elevation lake is one that brought me one of my most relaxing days I have had in a long time as I took a nap in the hammock alongside its shore line.

These are all great destinations, and there are many more that I could talk about. But, my mind started thinking about some of the destinations that I have reached that are not necessarily found on a map. These are items that I have personally accomplished that may have been difficult to endure through. I think my son would have one of his personal destinations be planning and completing his Eagle Project.

New Years is one of those great times of the year that we can reflect on how we are personally doing, what we should be doing better, and some of the items we would like to complete on our bucket list. It’s a time for resolutions and goal setting. I personally do not have New Years resolutions, but I do set some goals that I would like to accomplish for myself personally along with some goals I would like to accomplish with my family.

These past couple of years have been very difficult for many people. Emotionally, physically, and mentally. I personally had the difficult time of losing my father in October of 2021. My kids would probably say that their school year this last year was really difficult. Difficult roads will always be part of our life. Whatever your difficult roads have been, take some time to reflect on how you are the person that you are now because of the experiences you have been through. Reflect on some of those amazing places that you have hiked to or camped at that were off the beaten path. Each difficult road that we endure through makes us a little more Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.

2022-18 Rhino Sight

The other day a close friend of mine shared a story about when he visited Africa and experienced his first rhinoceros sighting in the wild.

Some facts about rhinoceros

• They are huge!

  • White rhinos can weigh over 3 tons.

• They are called bulls and cows.

  • Females are called “Cows”

  • Males are called “Bulls”

  • Baby’s are called “Calves”

• Rhino horns are made out of the same stuff your fingernails and hair is made of.

  • This stuff is called Keratin. It’s also the same stuff rattlesnake rattles are made of.

• They love mud.

  • Rhinos can often be seen rolling around in mud, giving themselves a protective 'mud coat’ to keep them cool, stop insects biting and get rid of any parasites.

• Rhino’s have poor eyesight

  • Their eyesight is not great. They are unable to see a motionless person at a distance of 30m. They rely heavily on their sense of smell.

Lets focus on the eyesight of this magnificent creature. I’m reminded of Jurassic Park when the massive T-Rex breaks out of its containment and Dr. Grant is the only one who knows what to do… “Don’t move, it’s vision is based on movement.” I’ve always been amazed at the knowledge of Dr Grant… How did he know that! These things have been extinct for millions of years. Anyway, back to Rhinos. Just like the massive T-Rex in the movie, if a Rhino focuses on you, it will do everything and anything in its power to run you down. It gets laser focused.

Sometimes we need to be laser focused with things that pop up in our lives. I know that with me personally, there are times that I need to be laser focused on a project at work because there is a deadline coming up that I can not be late on. There are times that we need to focus 100% on a piece of homework that is due the next morning. There are also times that we focus on the wrong things at the wrong time that eventually causes us to miss out on the more important items.

Let us do our best to focus on the right projects at the right time as we strive to be thrifty with our time.

2022-13 Money Is Not Everything

The past couple of weeks we have been working on the Personal Management Merit Badge. While working on this badge you start to gain an understanding of project management, time management, and money management. In my opinion, money is one of those necessary curses of life. We must have money in order to purchase goods and services. My trade profession is that of being an accountant. I manage and report on money for businesses every day. Sometimes those business do very well and are making a ton of money. Sometimes those businesses are doing all they can to just break even and sometimes they even lose money.

If you were asked, could you use a little more money? I’m pretty sure that all of us would say yes. Even though money can buy some really great and also needful items., ponder on some of these comparisons of what money can and can’t buy.

Money can buy a house, but not a home.

Money can buy a bed, but not sleep.

Money can buy a clock, but not time.

Money can buy glasses, but not vision.

Money can buy a book, but not wisdom.

Money can buy a doctor, but not good health.

Money can buy social status, but not class.

Money can buy a car, but not character.

There is a old saying that you can’t take your money with you to heaven.

I personally have witnessed wealthy individuals who are unhappy, even though they could buy anything they wanted to cheer themselves up. One thing that I was taught early in my youth was, “money does not buy happiness.” Now, I’m not saying that money is bad. Just remember that money is not everything. There are certain things that money can never buy.

Back to the personal management merit badge. We learn during this badge how important it is to safeguard your money. Through trial and error, there are certain things that you will find you want and do not want to spend it on. As we go through life, protect your investments as you live the 9th point of the Scout Law, Thrifty.

2022-11 Time

With today marking the beginning of daylight saving time, our Scouter’s Minute will be focusing on one of our most valuable resources each of us has - time.

Temporal measurements of time take two distinct forms. The calendar and the clock. Eventually in a 24 hour period, the second hand of the clock will click 86,400 times to make up one day on the calendar. It seems like a lot of time when you break it down to such a large number as 86,000. But, you eventually start to use up seconds throughout the day when all of a sudden one hour (which is 3,600 seconds) has passed by. What have you accomplished during those 3,600 seconds? Well, that is totally up to you.

William Penn, in the Fruits of Solitude wrote, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” C.S. Lewis said, “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour…”. In Jr High my Spanish teacher had a sign up by the clock in the classroom that said, “Time is passing… are you?”

Throughout history, time has always been there for every event. In Greek mythology we are introduced to Chronos, or Father Time. Depending on the culture, the concept of time is measured by a revolving cycle or a linear and directional measurement. In Western philosophy we start to study the philosophy of space and time. And then there is Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity… but that’s getting a little too “heavy” for me.

Time is a huge part of our life and culture. Pop culture loves it. Take a look at just a handful of movies or books that involve time and time travel.

• Back to the Future

• Wrinkle in Time

• The Tomorrow War

• Land of the Lost

• Planet of the Apes

• The Time Machine

• Flight of the Navigator

• Interstellar

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

• Clockstoppers

• Avengers Endgame

• Superman

• Star Trek

• Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

The list could go on and on.

Each one of us has the same amount of time available in a 24 hour period. What we do with this given time is up to us individually. Yes, a portion of this time we need to be sleeping. But again, how much sleep you personally get is up to you. I suggest the recommended 8 - 9 hours because being a sleepy and grumpy scout is no fun for anyone. When the day starts, what items do you want to accomplish during the day? Do you have a list of items to start with? Do you have a project or merit badge that needs to be completed that you have been putting off? Do you have homework that is sitting in your backpack that still needs to be completed before Monday? The point I’m trying to get across is that there is always something that needs to be done. Many times we put off these things that need to be done and we soon realize that we are almost out of time. One of the merit badges that I teach is Personal Management. This merit badge helps us not only understand the methods of budgeting our money or project management, but how we can budget our time. Between rank advancements, there is a period of time that needs to happen before we can earn our next rank. For most of us. We have designated events throughout the day like school or work that must be held at specific hours.

As you go through your day, budget time for those things that you value or that need to be completed. This could be spending time with family, reading a good book, starting or finishing a project or doing that pesky homework. Whatever takes your time, do it well and be thrifty with your time because the seconds on the clock will always continue to tick away.