SCOUTING FOR CHANGE: AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM WORTH PURSUING

Before I start, Allow me to first share this lessons I had ....here's an excerpt from Dough Johnson's Lessons of Change.

You can't mandate what matters.


Change is a journey, not a blueprint.

Problems are our friends.

Vision and strategic planning come later in the process, not at the beginning.

Individualism and collectivism must have equal power.

Neither centralism nor de-centralism works.

Connect with the environment.

Every person needs to be his or her own change agent

Only a deaf would not hear the thunderous cry for change echoing in all corners of our world, a world devastated not just by natural calamities but more so, of ceaseless human wickedness -greed for power, lust for fame and endless worship for money. In the quest for change, one small group can often and really most of the time, find its self in the midst of wolves hungry to slay their pray.

CHANGE is a very old battle-cry, probably much older than NOAH and it has been there since time immemorial, inevitably, those who look-up to the future will have no choice but to be that sheep in the midst of these wolves.

The scouting movement humbles itself to be one of the shepherds inclined to guide the herd of young men who are bound to continuously cry for the doctrines of an endless process called CHANGE. Not known to all, scouting teaches these young men the virtues of a Knight-bound to serve others. We blaze their minds with life knowledge and kindle their hearts with hopes and aspirations for them to move forward and not become part of the problem and rather be a part of the solution. Not known to all, Scouting does not only evolve in the boundaries of childhood fun, of songs, of yells and outdoor life. Scouting, decries complacency and promotes the persistent quest for self development using the old “Learning-by-doing process”, our classroom-the outdoor, our campus-the society, our education is for LIFE. Scouting serves the young ones to catalyze change, with the undying hope to deploy a small group of young envisioned youth who are upbeat, responsible and positive enough to become the change that this world need. We might even fail (as many does), but scouting will pursue its course nonetheless, and will carry on with its journey until the “change” it has been longing for is at hand.

Some of the changes I personally want….and so the changes I preached to my scouts

1. For us, MANKIND to learn to love NATURE the way we love LIFE.

2. For us, MANKIND to learn to respect others the way we want to be respected.

3. For us, MANKIND to learn to be ACCOUNTABLE to each and everything we do, even without anybody looking.

4. For us, MANKIND to strengthen our faith to God.

5. And for us, MANKIND to LIVE life with LOVE and HARMONY..

I may sound so optimistic, sound so hypocrite, or may even sound like a little voice in the wilderness- but soon, this voice echoed by these young men, and soon it will be heard.. As it goes in Sen. Gordon’s famous slogan “what this country needs is not just a change of men, but a change in men”. We will soon get the change we want. This may even appear as an Impossible Dream, but this is an Impossible Dream worth pursuing for.