The Desk.

Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. - Aristotle

I am now an Eagle Scout. I have received my documents back from the national and council board, and all that remains is to plan my ceremony. That is the technical aspect of the matter. But the truth of it is I have been an Eagle Scout for months. My work has been done or nearly so, and my documentation was complete. Various set-backs here and there prevented the official completion of my reception of the honor. I don't even want a ceremony anymore. What is that anyway? It is merely the presentation of a badge and a handshake. I'll get that badge in the mail; I got that handshake already. Some say that the ceremony is the culmination of the scout experience. Not for me. The culmination of my scout experience was my scout experience. I haven't spent the last eight years in search of Eagle, I've spent it backpacking, canoeing, and, more recently, teaching the children. I didn't do all that to get Eagle, I did it because it's what I live for. It just happens to be that Eagle is the name you get when you've done all of it. Eagle isn't the end, Eagle means nothing. These days kids come through, treat the troop like a factory and get it at 14. Others might be active for a few years, leave, and then come back and do all the requirements in a few months right before they turn 18. They're degrading the whole experience. That's why I'm not interested in Eagle. It shouldn't be something you get and then use to prove your worth, but rather it should be the thing for which you must prove your worth. Somewhere along the way that was lost.

Give me no badge to say I hiked a mountain, give me another mountain to hike. Give me no handshake for teaching a child, give me another child that I might teach him. The measure of a man is not what he has done, but rather what he may yet do.