THOUGHTFUL ITEMS FOR SCOUTERS
Thanks to Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah, who prepares this section of Baloo for us each month. You can reach him at bobwhitejonz@juno.com or through the link to write Baloo on www.usscouts.org. CD
Cub Scout Prayer
Cub Scout Roundtable Planning Guide
“Music brings joys to our lives. May we take the joy that it brings to us and spread it to the people whom we meet. Amen.”
Sounds of a Drum
Scouter Jim
There is a saying that each of us marches to the sound of a different drummer. In many forms of music it is the drum that paces the rhythm of the music. It is a drum, not a bugle that leads the caisson of a fallen hero. The rhythmic sound of a drum can mark grief or joy. Many years ago at the foot of the Uintah Mountains I was a witness to a joyful noise. The scene was the annual spring Bear Dance of the Ute People. The Bear Dance is an important ceremony to the Ute People. A group of drummers sit around a large drum and play songs on it as they sing.
Fred Conetah describes the dance in his book, A History of the Northern Ute People.
The People have a variety of stories about the origin of the Bear Dance, but they all center around a young hunter who met a bear just coming from hibernation. The bear told him never to hunt bears, and that if he would do the Bear Dance as the bear described, the Ute People would always be successful hunters.
The Bear Dance was not performed according to a rigid set of rules. It lasted from four to ten days, with couples dancing in a large (150’) arena. The dance was woman’s choice. The couples would dance back and forth, three steps forward, two steps back until exhausted. The Bear Dance continues to be performed even today. However, the focus of the ceremony has changed from hope for good hunting to concern for the well being of the People.
This is not a performance ceremony for spectators, but a very personal celebration of the beginning of a new year and a hope for the well being of the People. Don’t many cultures use music to ring in the New Year, no matter how their calendars count its beginning and end?
Psalms98:4 - 8
4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together
Four Reasons to Sing Loud
- If God gave you a good voice, sing loud,
He deserves to hear it.
- If God gave you a good voice, sing loud,
We deserve to hear it.
- If God didn't bless you with a beautiful singing voice,
Sing loud, who is a man to judge what God, has given you?
- If God didn't give you a beautiful singing voice,
Sing loud, sing out strong… God deserves to hear it. He's got no one to blame but himself!
Boys
Anonymous
The December 1953, January, February 1954 Cub Scout Program Quarterly
This was Volume 1, Number 1 of this publication
Boys are people not yet grown,
Who sometimes seem to live alone
For mischief, ball games, fights and fun,
And running in the summer sun.
They stand on flowers, climb on trees
And wear out holes in trouser knees,
They bat their balls through windowpanes,
They won’t wear rubbers when it rains.
They hate to work; they love to play,
They want to run the streets all day.
The want to eat ‘till dinner call,
And then they will not eat at all.
They’re always out; they love to roam
They gather junk and bring it home
They make an awful lot of noise.
God Bless all happy little boys
Quotations
Santa Clara Council Pow Wow Book
Quotations contain the wisdom of the ages, and are a great source of inspiration for Cubmaster’s minutes, material for an advancement ceremony or an insightful addition to a Pack Meeting program cover.
“Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside of us.” - Unknown
“Without music, life is a journey through a desert.” - Pat Conroy
“There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.” - M. Aumonier
“Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.” - E.Y. Harburg (Edgar Yipsel) (1898 - 1981)
It is only by introducing the young to great literature, drama and music, and to the excitement of great science that we open to them the possibilities that lie within the human spirit -- enable them to see visions and dream dreams. Eric Anderson
“It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.” - J.S. Bach
“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” - Albert Schweitzer (01/14/1875-1965)
“All of us contain Music & Truth, but most of us can't get it out.” – “Mark Twain
“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.” - Anais Nin
“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” - Victor Hugo
“Where words fail, music speaks.” - Hans Christian Andersen
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” - Maya Angelou
“All the sounds of the earth are like music.” - Oscar Hammerstein
“It had never occurred to me before that music and thinking are so much alike. In fact you could say music is another way of thinking, or maybe thinking is another kind of music.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
“ In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain.” - George Szell
“You are the music while the music lasts.” - T. S. Eliot
A Tribute To Den Leaders
San Gabriel Valley, Long Beach, & Verdugo Hills Councils
At the end of the rainbow a prize awaits you,
Though you don’t pass achievements as all your Cubs do,
Your prize is enshrined in the hearts of your boys,
Who’ll always remember that you gave them joys.
Don’t wait to be thanked now for the things that you do,
Don’t even expect that they’ll always follow through.
But when that young Cub Scout becomes a good Scout,
He’ll look back on the ways that you helped him out.
And someday in the future when his son is eight,
That’s when you will rate!
San Gabriel Valley, Long Beach, & Verdugo Hills Councils recommended this poem for a closing. It would also make a great part of a recognition ceremony for your Den leaders at Blue and Gold. CD
