Set Of Your Sails Minute

This Minute is meant for Scouts BSA.

Poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote this poem:
One ship drives east and another drives west,
With the selfsame winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails and not the gales,
Which tells us the way to go.

Have you ever noticed that two sailboats can sail in different directions in the same breeze? The trick is in knowing how to set your sails. The same wind can blow two sailboats completely different ways depending on how the skipper chooses.

That's true of Scouts' progress, too. Let me read a very short play to explain what I mean.

Act 1: Curtain opens. Two boys enter to join a Scout troop. They are both eager and ready. Curtain closes.

Time passes. It is now 3 years later.

Act 2: Curtain opens to the same troop. Where are the Scouts who joined the troop in act 1? There's one - now a Life Scout, has a Seabase patch, worn-out hiking boots, and leading a patrol. And there's the other - wearing the Second Class badge. Curtain closes.

Both scouts had opportunities to advance in the same troop. One of them sailed ahead, taking advantage of all opportunities. The other had the sails set differently and progressed at a different speed.

How far and how fast you go in scouting is up to you. The opportunities will be there, but its up to you to take them.