A Scout is Cheerful

A Scout is Cheerful. He makes others happy and always looks at the brighter side of life.

A Scout always approaches every situation and every problem with a smile. A Scout is happy and tries to make others happy, even when the situation is such that nothing can be happy about it. He looks on the brighter side of things, noting that "things could be worse". In chores and routine things, the Scout tries to find ways in doing them which would achieve the goal yet leave everyone fulfilled.

It is not the purpose of this point to force every Scout to be happy about everything; things occur and as human beings, we each have differing ways of dealing with those events and sharing our emotions about them.

However, as things go bad, as they usually will: the rainstorm that wipes out your warm fire, the cancellation of a good TV or radio program, the death or sudden illness of family or loved ones or just a good friend --those instances are times in which you must use your temperment and outlook to help others to get past the sadness.

"Nothing bothers you, Mike", I've heard people tell me. "No matter what happens". Yes, things do bother me, but I don't dwell on them to a point where it drags me down with it. I worry about paying the monthly bills. I worry about finding a better job, something more fulfilling than the two jobs I have now. I worry about my children's health and safety. I worry if my wife has a warm blanket to lay on.

Worry does nothing, however, but make you worry more. Sitting down and coming up with solutions, even those that aren't always favorable, is a lot better.

I release stress. I write. I read. I watch TV or listen on the radio to something different. It could be Celtic music, or a movie. A walk or a jog down to the edge of the fields and back again. Something. No matter what I do, however, there is always something out there that somehow turns the muscles in my jar and cheeks upward and round.

Be tearful, be upset, be disappointed -- but do so in a way that would lead others to behave likewise. I remember a television star once saying that he could make hundreds of people cry over a sad piece in his show. The hardest part, he said, was to make those same people who were crying a momment ago laugh in big belly whoppers at the same situation. That, he said, was cheerfulness.

Be happy whenever you can. I try.

Settummanque!
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle)