Wednesday, February 10, 2010

True North

Mentor, friend, and stout fellow, Gil Bailie posts on expecting a grandchild, being a former - or is it present? - Eagle Scout, and weathering cultural storms in Be Prepared … for random coincidence …

He refers in his post to Joe Carter's piece at First Things, The Most Influential Conservative Book Ever Produced in America
, which shows how my Shire-produced hobbit mind works. It never occurred to me to label the Boy Scout Manual "conservative". Or perhaps, if anyone was so benighted as to see the Manual in Marxist terms, it was so much the worse for him/her. To libel the BSA was tantamount to libeling the Junior Woodchucks, or being so daft as to assume magnetic north is true north.

Of course, times have changed: up IS down, bad IS good, and the center does not hold.

The worshipers of mayhem and chaos, those possessed by the spirit of the age, feel a quaint need to kick over any restraints and mores that still exist. For them, following a path of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent is clearly pathology.

But for me and my house, we will keep lamps and oil ready during snowstorms, help the old lady shovel out, have the whetstone handy, and a few extra tins in the pantry. Especially when more snow is expected.

Send me a copy of the Metrosexuals' Manual when it comes out. I'm sure it will be good for a few laughs.

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