Re: Graceful Retirement from Active Scouting
Settummanque, ("MAJ)
Mon, 18 Nov 1996 22:49:14 -0600
Hi Keith!! You asked:
>My question to the list is this, "Has anyone been successful in coming up
>with a graceful way that one could retire from active scouting?" The more
>people I thought about who are no longer active seemed to have left either
>because their kids grew up and their interest likewise went away, they
>died, or they just went away mad because of someone or something.
The first time I retired from active Scouting service was in 1988. The Council
gave me a nice send-off and I took the shirt that I had worn since 1981 and had
it framed, with the awards that I received up to that time and my last National
Committee emblem and other items. The shirt is a centerpiece in my officeroom
now and was a centerpiece in the three offices I worked from while attending
grad school. As a matter of fact, it was that same shirt and interest in
what I did
in Scouting that got me *back* out of retirement.
I think that it's highly symbolic to have the last uniform shirt (or a
favorite one)
framed at the end of your active Scouting period. You can still see it,
remember the
super times and the super people (and the not-so-super times and people!) but
you can't put it back on unless you break the glass.
For myself, I've done just about all I could do at my age and experience and
felt it
was time to move onward and let others carry the torch, of course watching and
coaching from the sidelines. I was really, really wrong. I have *at least
three more
years in me*! *broad smile*
Settummanque!!
-----
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle)
http://www.vhm.com/~uscardnl/
(Brigade) Signal Officer, TF 21, 21st Theater Army Area Command
Kaiserslautern, Federal Republic of Germany
"everything I say is "on the record"; speaking ONLY for myself unless indicated"
personal inquiries via blkeagle@midwest.net or kyblkeagle@aol.com
professional inquiries via waltonm%po2.hq@taacom.kaiserslautern.army.mil
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