Pronoun people.  This is a term invented to describe the "group" of people that a particular person professes to represent.  The interesting thing about the pronoun people is that it is often just 2 or 3 people and not a real majority, but if it is spun right the pronoun seems quite powerful.  In fact, most of the time the person using the pronoun shops around, voices their opinion to a few people and then asks the pronoun people if they agree.  The pronoun people would not typically voice this opinion themselves and the person using the pronoun people feels like they have gained more of a voice.  Usually the use of the pronoun people occurs in the behind the scene meetings of an inner group.  No motion is made no vote is taken, and so what might be an actual minority is given a larger voice than is warranted.  These kind of interactions are detrimental to the group.  Business of a group should be done in the open business meetings whether the body be an executive board, an association or a committee.  To ensure a proper and honest vote on any issue a call for a ballot vote can be made.  A teller committee of three individuals will have to be nominated and everyone with a position on that board or committee can vote without prejudicing anyone else.  The pronoun people are as poisonous to a group as an anonymous letter.  If you can't sign your name then you shouldn't line up to complain!  If you are part of the pronoun people then use your name make your complaints in person and be counted in the democratic process that is supposed to rule the day!

I had a job interview this morning in Pearland.  I was asked what Green meant to me. In an email I had talked about Green in terms of reducing our carbon footprint, recycling and helping to reduce use of ground water.  But mostly I thought about something Jon, my 14 year old said several months ago.  He said, "that he was tired of the word green."  It has become the new "in" word.  It brings thoughts of environmentally friendly ideas and the problems of global warming.  Really to me green represents the plant world.  Green tells me that the chloroplasts are hard at work, making sugar from carbon dioxide and water and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.  Without the reflected green light we wouldn't have such a wealth of green.  Green to me is a color, as a photographer who loves to take nature photos I love to find scenes with the greatest variation of greens.  We love to camp and live by the leave no trace precepts.  We try to have as low as an impact on the land whenever we camp.  During our camping ventures I love to take photographs and study the plants, fungi and moss that make nature so interesting.  So back to the question about Green.  I guess green isn't so simple, at least to me.  Green used to be Jon's favorite color, probably is still.  But to me Green is nature, green is life.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!  My bed was great!  BUT chores awaited us.  We unpacked the car and dumped out our laundry.  Tons and tons of scouting apparel all of it dirty and sweaty!  Of course we enjoyed summer camp but oh the chores that we had to catch up with.  Vacuuming, dusting, mowing and then the two filthy dirty cars.  I asked the boys what they thought about summer camp.  They enjoyed CIMA.  They didn't like the early start to the day, but they did like the programs.  I was surprised that although it was so hot during the day, it did cool off enough at night to get some sleep.  We have several snoring machines amongst our adult leaders.  They kept up a chorus of sorts all night long.

Although I believe I have a young attitude in general, my age is beginning to show.  I find that I really value sleeping in my own bed.  Camping for a week on a cot, even with the addition of my Eddie Bauer Deluxe Self-Inflating Mattress is NOT the same as sleeping in my bed.  Of course, the bugs, snoring sounds from the neighboring tents and the lack of a breeze all contribute to problems falling asleep.  Then add a mild cold or allergies (we often joke and say maybe it is one of those viral allergies) and a hacking cough and sleep is even more elusive.  Not that it is a big deal.  I can function on little sleep as long as I get a few hours.  There is plenty to do at camp, not a lot of time to sit and lament the lack of sleep!  Even on weekend campouts sleep is not totally necessary.  If there is plenty to do, I can maintain a cheerful attitude and have fun.  That is the main thing I love about being at camp or camping in general.  Getting away from "normal" life and being outdoors is always an adventure.  I always have fun, despite the heat, rain, bugs and lack of sleep!

Dolly visited with a vengeance.  She brought band after band of rain through the Boy Scout camp.  She left us cooler, but much wetter!  Every time I thought we might catch a break, and we did get a few little breaks, those breaks only lasted for a little time before the next line hit us.  We prepared for the Scoutmaster Cook-off.  We prepared three entrees.  The rain held off long enough to get most of the cooking done!  It was great cooking the last bit in the rain.  We sacrificed our dryness to keep the coals dry.  It was worth it, the three entrees turned out well.  AND of course the winners were the folks that got to eat it.  We had good fellowship with the staff and other scoutmasters.  The boys themselves are having a great time regardless of the weather.  Playing in the rain is an adventure to them.  A few were worried about the lightening but overall everyone was having fun.  The soccer game in the rain and mud was very popular.  The boys can turn anything into a positive, you just have to step back and let them be boys!

The hardest part of being an assistant scoutmaster is stepping back and letting the boys lead.  The second hardest part of being an assistant scoutmaster is remembering that the boys are the leaders.  IT is the duty of the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters to provide the boys with everything they need to succeed with the boy led process.  The scouting methods work.  One of the most important methods of scouting is the patrol method. 

“The patrol method is not a way to operate a Boy Scout Troop, it is the only way.  Unless the patrol method is in operation you don’t really have a Boy Scout troop.”

--Robert Baden-Powell

Working with Boy Scout aged boys is very rewarding.  They are definitely capable of making the patrol method work.  If we give them the tools to build their own program the can effectively lead themselves.  As adults it behooves us to empower them to step back and give them guidance in the background so that we do not step on their toes.  It is very important for the adults of the troop to maintain that deference to the boy leader (senior patrol leader) so that the other boys in the troop will respect him too.  In a well run boy led troop the adult leaders work in the background and no one knows what they are doing.

We are camping at El Rancho CIMA Scout Ranch.  Dolly has come ashore at Brownsville and caused weather disturbances here.  So, we asked our boy leaders if they thought we should put up our big white shelter.  They thought it would be wise to have a place to get out of the rain.  Our acting Scoutmaster explained to the boys how to put it up the shelter and they went after it.  The boys through some trial and error were able to put up the shelter.  They needed a little guidance now and then but it was accomplished without any yelling, screaming, or heckling.  Surprisingly enough the boys can do it.  They can come up with a plan to accomplish something and organize themselves to do it.

I love the Hill Country!  We are in the middle of Devil’s Backbone right off of Ranch Road 32 near Fischer, TX.  It is drier than Pearland, but hotter.  The views from around camp are outstanding!  Dolly is going to affect our weather here.  We will have rain.  The locals are looking forward to rain and the aquifer desperately needs more water.  We have to climb up to the dining hall for dinner every day.  Right now we are on top of a mesa.  We will be back down by the river in 30 minutes.  Down by the Blanco River it is a little more humid, and the breezes do not always reach the campsites there.  There are a few fireflies; the mosquitoes are scarce, I have seen tons and tons of daddy long legs.  I haven’t personally observed a scorpion yet, but I did hear second hand of one in the men’s shower.  Camping is a great experience for the boys.  I just wished that it involved a little bit more sleep for me.

I was thinking about footprints.  You know like the footprint you leave in the sand, or better yet a footprint in cement that might last a while.  Then I started thinking about different kinds of footprints.  So, while I am working hard to reduce my carbon footprint.  I want to create a bigger legacy footprint.  Not a legacy in the sense that I want to leave someone a pile of money or the keys to my house.  I want to leave behind a history of community service and caring for others that affects a lot of people.  I don’t want people to remember the kind of car I drove or the amount of money I left my children.  Instead I want them to talk about how something that I did for them or the community touched their lives.  To me that would be the equivalent of leaving a very big footprint on the Earth.

I just reread my apology of July 1, 2008.  I noticed that the only comment to my post yet again was from my husband.  He isn't even one of the folks that deserved an apology.  I am trying really hard to be a more positive, upbeat and cheerful person.  I want to be sympathetic and empathize with the next person.  So, please keep an eye on me during this journey.  I have recently found that the hardest part is curbing my sarcasm. So if I have a sarcastic moment please step on my toes and remind me that I am trying reform. 

I have been following Robert Stanton of the Houston Chronicle’s blog since he started writing it, with an enticing title like “Inside Pearland” who could resist.  After following the comments people have made to his blog entries, I wonder how far “inside” Pearland I really want to be. 

 

For the past 12 years I have actively volunteered in PTAs, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts.  During the past few years, I have noticed a disturbing trend toward less volunteerism.  The more stuff and the bigger houses we need, the less we are willing or perhaps able to do within the community.  If you need to spend more time to make more money to buy bigger and bigger and more stuff then you don’t have time for the things that really matter.

 

Even within the scouting programs most people are only willing to do when it allows them to directly interact with their own child.  The pool of people who would give up their free time to do something for someone else is dwindling.  On July 4^th weekend Keep Pearland Beautiful asked our troop to help keep the recyclables out of the trash and vice versa at the Pearland Stadium.  Out of 90 scout families only members from 6 families participated.  Were the rest out of town?  No, they were around just not willing to give up a couple of hours.

 

The paranoia, lack of “other” cultural awareness, elitism and lack of community mindedness within Pearland really disappoints me.  Shared spaces including  street intersections, drainage ditches and easements are always full of trash.  Neighborhoods are financially segregated and certain assumptions are made just based on your locale in the Pearland area.  I say judge me by what I do and how I do it.  Take your time and get to know me, maybe I will be able to convince you to join a PTA or other volunteer organization.  Together we can break down the cliques and do some meaningful work.  Together we can work with all types of people and invest in the future of all the children of Pearland.

I don't even know if anyone EVER reads my blog.  There is such a pletheria of wordage out on the internet now that it is hard to imagine that anyone would read mine.  I know that my husband reads my blog.  He probably feels obligated to read what my latest thoughts might be.  I check on his blog periodically but he hasn't added anything in a while.  I really don't write my blog for an audience.  It is for the most part a way for me to create and vent.  Sometimes it just helps to write what I am feeling so that I can move on to the next thing in my life.  I am still sad about the unhappy people who have to complain all the time.  I have been really trying to be more positive, to look at things through a positive filter.  It makes me a happier person!