A Pack of Wolves

Both Summer10 and Spring7 are active in Cub Scouts. In fact, Mike is Spring7's den leader so really our family is active in Cub Scouts (or "Scub Scouts" as Winter4 says as only he can).

The boys recently earned Catholic religious awards through scouts and were invited to "Scout Day with the Bishop" being held for both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at a local church. An awards ceremony was held after a brief prayer service. (During which I answered garden variety questions from Spring7 such as "How long is this thing going to last?" and "Is that guy the bishop?") The speaker stated that the scouts were to proceed to the altar to receive a patch from the bishop when their particular award was announced. Egad! This required a quick rebriefing in "how to shake hands with someone important." In a hushed voice that probably half the church heard, I reminded the boys to shake with their right hand, look him in the eye and say thank you.

The first awards were given to Girl Scouts. All this did was raise the expectations for scout behavior. Let me tell you that there was a noticeable difference between the girls and the boys. The seven and eight year old girls, when called, weren't really sure what they were supposed to do but they cautiously approached the altar and looked around at the adults for cues. They lined up in a fairly orderly way, shyly shook hands, said thank you, smiled and quietly walked back to their seats.

The approach of the Cubs was, um, different. Rather than a cautious approach, they more or less stampeded up the aisle. These seven and eight year old boys are Wolf cubs and walking in a pack is exactly what they did. Not that any of them were trying to push or trip each other but when a large pack of boys attempts to walk together, someone is going to get tripped up. As they approached the altar and formed something sort of like a line, when one Cub took one step forward, the other Cubs took three steps forward and got all bunched up. They were in constant motion...forward, back, to the side like magnets being alternately attracted to and pushed away from each other. Each serious handshake was followed by maybe a "thank you", maybe a grunt. Each boy walked back to his seat as if he was on fire and water was around the corner. Fortunately, the bishop had a sense of humor as he chuckled the entire time!

I always give credit to the Boys Scouts for really understanding little boys and knowing what sorts of things they like to do. Clearly, they classify them well too. Next year, I think Spring7 will be a Bear Cub. Does this mean his wolf pack run will slow to a lumber? I don't see that happening!