HOW TO CATCH A HERD OF ELEPHANTS (visual aide: pair of binoculars) (Extra: Tweezers, Milk Bottle, Paper sign) I start by telling my scouts an OLD CORNY elephant Joke. How to catch a herd of Elephants: Materials: A pair of binoculars, a pair of tweezers, a milk bottle (hard to explain), and a sign with the words “Elafant crossing” with the word elephants misspelled.
1. Place the sign near where a herd of elephants will cross 2. Hide behind the bushes and wait 3. When the first elephant comes and sees the sign with the word elaphant misspelled, he will start to laugh and call the rest of the herd over to see. 4. While the herd is distracted, laughing at the sign, jump up from behind the bushes, look thru the binoculars backwards, use the tweezers to pick up the herd and drop them in the milk bottle! — ( I got few if any laughs, they missed the humor of an elephant joke… )
Then I asked: What happens when you look through a pair of Binoculars? (looking for the answer that things appear closer, you see better, smaller things…) Then I asked: What about when you look through the binoculars backwards, like in my joke? (looking for the answer that things seem far away, smaller, see less detail…)
Being a scout in our troop means we accept one another without conditions. Kind of like looking through the binoculars backwards. We don’t see all the small things or details about you. You are a member of our troop, and that’s enough for us. When one of you doesn’t come in full uniform, or has your shirt tail out, or is sloppy looking. We over look it, because we want you as a part of our troop.
Many in the world are uncomfortable with scouting. Our stand for character and morals only highlights their lack of these fundamental needs in our society. Therefore, when you are a scout, the world kind of looks at you through a pair of binoculars.
The world is looking at all the details. Trying to find a flaw in scouting to discredit and dishonor scouting and its stand for these character and morals. Each time you come to a meeting or scout function, and dress sloppy, or act unscout like the world sees and they use this against us. In our troop, we choose to overlook the small things, unfortunately the world won’t give us that break.
What you do in your life as a scout, reflects not only on yourself (which really is the most important) but also on ALL other scouts in your troop and around the world. Remember, someone is always watching you through binoculars!
Visual aide: pair of binoculars Extra: Tweezers, Milk Bottle, Paper sign