S.P. & Law – A Scout has courage in all difficulties
This is a fairly straightforward Law – to have courage – but in ALL difficulties?
One meaning of the word courage that I have found is “the quality of mind or or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain etc without difficulty or fear; bravery”
But before you start thinking that in order to meet the requirements of this Law, every Scout must have the sort of attitude that Superman would have been envious of, have some bravery in it. This law is not saying that you have to be fear-less – it’s OK to be nervous or scared about a situation or being asked to do something (example: I’m not very happy with heights, my friend doesn’t like speaking in front of a room of strangers, another friend doesn’t like climbing trees).
In my case, I don’t go looking for climbing walls and abseiling towers and cliff faces to climb to “conquer my fear”, but if I’m with my Scout Troop and one of my Scouts has got scared on a climbing wall (and it’s safe for me to do so) I will climb up to help them. At that point, I take courage and do it.
As another example: If I’m walking with my Scouts and we get to somewhere that we didn’t expect (I wouldn’t say “lost” – others might though )and it starts to get dark and it begins to rain, this Law really comes into effect. It’s about not just sitting down saying “I’m cold and lost and I’m not going any further” it’s about saying “OK, we need to get out of the rain and work out where we are; let’s get a plan together”.
Before 1968 there was a much bigger set of Scout laws, and this used to say “A Scout smiles and Whistles under all circumstances”. Whilst the intention is the same – to provide the Scout with a mask of courage; it is very difficult to smile and whistle at the same time!
So your challenge to meet this law… how will you react when you are asked to do something that you don’t really want to do?
