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85 Ten Commandments of Human Relations
  1. Speak to people---there is nothing as nice as a cheerful word of greeting.
  2. Smile at people---it takes sixty-five muscles to frown, only fifteen to smile.
  3. Call people by name---the sweetest music to anyone's ear is the sound of their own name.
  4. Be friendly and helpful---if you would have friends, be friendly.
  5. Be cordial---speak and act as if everything that you do is a real pleasure.
  6. Be genuinely interested in people---you can like everybody if you try.
  7. Be generous with praise---cautious with criticism.
  8. Be considerate of the feelings of others---it will be appreciated.
  9. Be thoughtful of the opinions of others---there are three sides to a controversy; yours, the other person's, and the right one.
  10. Be alert to give service---what counts most in life is what we do for others.

86 Ten Needs
  1. To climb a mountain and to look afar.
  2. To sit around an ember campfire, with good friends.
  3. To test your strength and skill, on your own.
  4. To be alone with your own thoughts and with God.
  5. To be ready to reach out and find the hand of an understanding adult, ready and willing to help.
  6. To have a code to live by---easily understood and fair.
  7. A chance to play hard, just for the fun of it--and to work hard for the thrill of it.
  8. To have a chance to fail--and know why.
  9. To have and to be a good friend and to have a chance of proving both.
  10. To have a hero, and a vision to measure her by.

87 This Sacred Earth---A Plea for Preservation

Europeans came in great numbers to settle the Puget Sound area of Washington State beginning in the mid 19th century. From 1851, the United States Government entered into negotiations with the native tribes of the area to sell them land. Among the most preeminent of negotiators was the leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, Chief Seattle (in whose honor the City of Seattle is named). His words, addressed to President Franklin Pierce, were taken down as translator's notes by frontier doctor and would-be poet, Henry Smith. In the 1970s, Dr. Smith's text, published in 1887, was fashioned to a script by Ted Perry and introduced to world audiences in an ABC television documentary called "Home". Here is Chief Seattle's compelling message on preserving the environment, from Perry's script:

The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same family.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where people can go taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the people of the earth.

This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: our god is also your god. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

When the last Red Man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So. if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you received it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.

As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: there is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are brothers and sisters after all."

88 To Be The Best

89 Tolerance

The most precious attribute that you can have as a citizen is the capacity to see that your truth is not the only truth, that your faith is not higher than your neighbor's, and that your sense of yourself need not be enriched by denigrating others who are different from you.

[David Shipler is the Pulizer Prize-winning author of "Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land" While researching a story on the plight of Vietnamese-American children in 1974, he became friends with an 8-year old boy. The boy's mother expressed the wish that her son could go to the U.S. to get an education. Shipler adopted the boy. Jonathan Shipler was in the graduating class that his father addressed.]

90 Torch for the world

[ - from the GGC campfire activities book.]

91 The Touch of the Master's Hand

-- Myra B. Welch

92 The Traveller and the Tracker

Once a Traveller and a Tracker set out to explore the world together. As they wound their way through the wilderness, the Traveller was amazed at the Tracker's habit of pausing several times a day to pray.

"Why do you pray to something intangible?" the Traveller asked. "How do you know there is a God?"

Now the Tracker was very skilled in noticing things and, through the years, had gained much insight reading the smallest signs. And he answered the Traveller this way:

"I know there is a God when I see the leaves turning yellow. I know there is a God when a trout jumps at a fly, and when grass waves in the dry wind. I know there is a God when clouds shade my head and the stars wink at night."

"So you see," said the Tracker, "I know there is a God, for I can see his footprints throughout the Universe."

93 Traveller at the Gate

A traveller reached the gates of a city one night and knocked at the gate. The gatekeeper answered and the traveller asked, "I need a place to stay. What are people like in your city?" The gatekeeper replied, "What are people like in your home city?" "Stingy, mean and unkind to strangers," replied the traveller. "Well, we're just the same here," replied the gatekeeper. So the traveller continued walking.

Later, another traveller appeared at the gate and the gatekeeper answered. The traveller asked about the local people and the gatekeeper replied, "What are people like in your home city?" "Generous, kind and hospitable to strangers," replied the traveller. "Well, we're just same here," replied the gatekeeper. "And you're welcome to stay the night here."

94 The True Peace

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that, at the centre of the universe dwells God, and that this centre is really everywhere; it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.

The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. (But) there can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace ... within the souls of people.

-- Black Elk, Shaman of the Lakota Nation

95 Two for the Price of One

If you have a dollar, and I have a dollar, and we exchange them, we each still have only one dollar. But if you have a program idea, and I have a program idea, and we exchange them, we each have two program ideas!

96 Truth is One

-- Rig Veda

97 Two lasting Gifts

There are two lasting gifts we can give children: one is roots, the other is wings!

98 Wander Thirst

99 We look about us

[Useful in an open setting Scouts Own, use surroundings to fill out the lines, take your time and encourage the Scouts to look about themselves.]

100 Weeds

In this context, "weeds" are those perceptions and attitudes that choke or strangle continuous improvement.

The following is taken from the book What is Total Quality Control by Kaoru Ishikawa, considered one of the world's foremost authorities on quality control, and on what hinders continuous improvement:

  1. Passivity among top executives and managers; their avoidance of responsibility.
  2. People who feel that everything is fine and that there are no problems at all. These are people who are satisfied with the status quo and lack in the understanding of significant issues.
  3. People who think that their organization is by far the best. Let us call them egotists.
  4. People who think that the easiest and best ways of doing things are those which are familiar to them. People who rely only on their own shallow experience.
  5. People who think only of themselves or of their own division. People who are imbued with sectionalism.
  6. People who have no ears for other people's opinions.
  7. People who scramble for distinction, always thinking about themselves.
  8. Despair, jealousy, and envy.
  9. People who are oblivious to what is happening beyond their immediate surroundings. People who do not know anything about other divisions, other industries, the outside world, or the world as a whole.
  10. People who continue to live in the feudalistic past. They include "people who are engaged merely in business affairs, managers and line workers who lack common sense, and labor union members who are doctrinaire."

To dispel these wrong attitudes, people need the courage of their conviction, the spirit of cooperation, an enthusiastic pioneering spirit, and the desire to make new breakthroughs. They also need confidence in their own ability to persevere and must possess good tactics and strategies for overcoming difficulties.

101 Wet Blankets through History

To help develop an open-minded and defiant attitude to others' rejection of your ideas, remember that many creative contributions are initially met with skepticism, if not outright hostility. Keep a list of creative contributions that we now know to be significant but that were once thought to be crazy, stupid, useless, offensive and doomed to failure. The next time you or someone you know has a new idea, creation or innovation, remember this list. Remind yourself that it is far better to give an idea a chance---or at least to not immediately shoot it down---than to be one of those who always say "Won't work" or "Bad idea" or "Too risky" and, hence, never do anything great. Here are some examples:

Here's one more: The consulting firm, Arthur D. Little's most famous gaff. They dismissed the photocopy process invented by an unknown Midwestern engineer as not worth investing in. After a hard struggle to obtain desperately needed funds, the engineer went on to create Xerox corporation.

102 What is Fair?

--written by British Cub Scout Owen Shadick, 4th Barnehurst Pack. Thanks to Scouting (UK) magazine.

103 What Kids Would Say to Parents

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