A couple of things in the news recently made me think of “self-ish” versus “self-less” acts.
First, there was the letter to the editor in our local paper, entitled “MOM THANKS DAUGHTER”. The letter was written by a mother who wanted to call attention to a good deed her daughter had performed, and for which she had not received “any great thanks” from the beneficiary of the deed.
An article in a recent Readers Digest magazine talks about an elderly man who has spent every morning for the past 13 years sweeping the streets and sidewalks of his neighborhood, and maintaining the nearby high school athletic fields, all without pay. He says he doesn’t care whether anyone notices what he does – or even thanks him, he does it because it needs doing.
The Scout Slogan is “Do a Good Turn Daily” – the third Scout Law is “A Scout is Helpful”, and in your oath as a Scout you pledge, on your honor “to help other people at all times”. That daily Good Turn is one of the things that most clearly stamps you as a Scout. But it is not the size of the Good Turn that counts – it is the way it in which it is done – cheerfully and without a thought of recognition or reward.
Which one of these people in the news is the most like you?