Being Preparedness

[oloriel]

They are currently celebrating the 100th anniversary of the scouting movement.

I am no longer in the scouts, but they were a huge and important part of my life for ten years, so naturally all this celebrating - and it has to be a lot if even the German newspapers manage to mention it - makes me turn a little wistful. (It was, after all, not the scouting movement that made me leave, it was just that I was growing ever more incompatible with our local group).

Now those familiar with scouting anywhere in the world but unfamiliar with scouting in Germany need, I suppose, a brief explanation.
In Germany, the scouts are not patriotic. I mean, I don't know whether they are patriotic everywhere else - but with the French (... well, duh), American, Canadian, South African or Swedish scouts I met along the line, patriotism was always part of the game. In the German scouts, it is not. The reason can be found in the years between 1933 and 1945, like anyone's going to be surprised now; after that, anything that looked as though it intended to educate young people towards patriotism was highly suspicious. (The German scouting movement as such was forbidden in 1938, and was re-established in 1946).
German scouts are, instead, religious. They're really rather like the YMCA, just with neckerchiefs and funny hats. (Except the YMCA in, say, America, doesn't seem to have much to do with its name either, so the comparison may not work.) They're church-run and church-supported. That isn't as bad as you may imagine now; they were really rather tolerant about the whole thing. I was in a catholic scout movement even though I'm protestant, and we had unconfessional and pagan kids in our group which wasn't a problem either. Being church-run really only meant that there was always some kind of service before any kind of celebration. It also meant that the parish priest would drop by on camp Sundays (if it wasn't too far; otherwise one of the leaders got to do the service). He was okay, too. Due to a certain resemblance to the old Sir Alec Guiness he was nick-named Obi-wan, because that was what he looked like in his tunicle.

Being rather like the YMCA, group meetings generally meant playing dodgeball or Brennball or hide-and-seek (when we were younger) or sitting around chatting (when we were older). Sometimes our leaders could be motivated to organise something more interesting, like first aid or pushcart-building, but generally the whole thing wasn't overly exciting. I used to fantasize about scouting life in other countries where (so I imagined; I have no idea whether it's true) being in the scouts meant having adventures every other day, with motivated, creative group leaders, well-organised troops and - badges. God, how I envied those foreign scouts for the badges they could make! I mean, like, fulfilling tasks in order to gain a badge for stuff like pioneering, hiking and so on! (When I was on vacation with my parents, I'd usually force them to visit a local scout shop if there was one, so I could get some memorabilia and books (the latter only if the language of the country was English; in France I only took comic books. >_>)) There were no badges in our scouting organisation. Too military. German scouting has been - for the reasons mentioned above, and also for post-modern rationals - de-militarised as much as possible. You only wear the uniform for high feasts, so to say, or in camp. It all makes sense to 24-year old Lyra, but the problem is that most kids love the military stuff, and it seemed terribly unfair that if I ran around in scouting uniform I got strange looks whereas kids who ran around in the Young Fire-fighters uniform were coooool. Kids in general tend to be more savage and warrior-fannish than most idealists seem to realise, but that's a different topic altogether.

I had joined the scouts hoping for high adventure. Oh, I got it sometimes: Camping in torrential rain, learning climbing and abseiling, canoeing, sailing (yes, I know the Ijsselmeer doesn't exactly qualify for "high adventure" - but the illusion works!), and there were evenings spent singing around the campfire. Once a year there was some kind of regional jamboree on St. George's Day (St. George is the patron saint of boy scouts; I don't know whether this is known in countries where the scouts are not church-run?), and once a year there was Stammestag when all the different age groups of the local branch got together and did a ralley. But these events were fairly rare and far between, and between the last and the next there was: dodgeball, Brennball, hide-and-seek. I was there for the adventure, and I tried to get our group to do more adventurous things: In those days I was still bossy and not afraid to try and get people to do what I wanted. I think I annoyed everybody very much. :D

Although there was little hope of me ever being able to use all that stuff, I turned to the noble theory of adventure, reading Rüdiger Nehberg, or the scouting handbook (despite everything else said about the German scouts, that handbook is actually quite excellent with a lot of really random knowledge) and, later, handbooks. I was the Hermione Granger of scouting. I knew all sorts of random things - what knot to use what for (useful), what kind of barks best to use for tinder (useful), how to make an emergency shelter (useless unless in ralley situations), how to behave in case of an avalanche (I have yet to encounter an avalanche closer than 300 meters away. ... or not.), how to build camp-towers (useless because nobody allows a fifteen-year old girl to try that, phooey). I practiced pitching a tent with only one hand (just in case anyone ever wants to write a fanfic in which post-Thangorodrim Maedhros puts up a tent: messy but possible), building bridges from ropes and logs and all that jazz. Sometimes it got in handy, in which case most of the kids in our group decided that I was an insufferable know-it-all, and most of the time it was just useless. But I really, really enjoyed it. And I always hoped I'd be able to use it some day. I always wanted to be some kind of last action hero. *coughs*

Aside from the adventure-thirst, what fascinated me about scouting was the internationality. Our local branch had contacts with a group in our town's French sister city, and with a Swedish group in Eskilstuna; in 1998, we visited the latter and took part in a big Swedish scouting event, the DUST camp, where I had the time of my life (also, where I fell in love for the first time. I mean, with a real, non-fictional person). In 1999 the Swedes and the French group came to visit us to celebrate our branch's 50th anniversary, and in 2000 we took part in the Nationale Jamboree in Heerlen (that is in the Netherlands), and I loved these meetings (they were the only parties I went to in my innocent youth, really) and the masses of people getting together because they shared a hobby. (I admit it, I love being part of a crowd of like-minded people. I'm a herd animal. It's what I love about gasshuku (which is like a jamboree for karateka, really :D) and about LARP events and about the Japan Day and all).

In the end I decided that I was tired of having to put up with snide co-scouts in my local group; I was tired of being thought silly because, while they had interests suitable for 17-year olds, I was still a romantic with a hunger for the clichéd adventures; I was tired of the mobbing and the cliques; and I was in my last year in high school and used the graduation preparations as an excuse of having no more time. I didn't regret leaving the group; except for two or three people, I hadn't really been friends with anyone. I did regret leaving scouting, because of the things I loved about the movement. I suppose I should have tried finding a new group, but chances of finding one that suited me were slim, and so I turned my attention to jûdô and karate, where we at least didn't play dodgeball. I went canoeing with some people from school, and to Prague with some other people, and to jûdô camp with the club of the guy I had just fallen in love with*; and we've all moved on. But sometimes - when there is a jamboree, or when there are celebrations like there are now - I miss being a member of the scouts.

I suppose I'll look into it again. When I have kids in scouting age, for example. Then I'll be one of the group leaders and I'll teach them all sorts of useless knowledge, go on adventurous trips, and teach them that it's perfectly fine to prefer rainy Pentecoste camps to Spice Girls concerts and to find How to tie what knot to what purpose (... not like that, you pervs!) way more interesting than Bravo.

And now you may laugh.


*Incidentally, that happens to be the guy who is my boyfriend now, but it took three years to come to that.

Comments

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

I was a boy scout in America. Here, there are two seperate organizations -- boy scouts, and girl scouts. Most of the boy scouts I've spoken to say that their experience was like mine -- we went places, and did things. Indeed, when I was briefly a boy scout leader, I took my boys places, and did things with them. Camping, white water paddling, rock climbing, whatever.

Most of the girl scouts I've talked to say that being a girl scout was pretty much a waste of their time. I'm sad that they didn't have the same rich experience.

I'm also sad that religious interests seem to have taken over American scouting. I'm particularly saddened by the decision to exclude homosexual boys from scouting... that issue was what got me removed as a scout leader, and excommunicated from the Mormon church.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

... ok, that is scary. (I mean, the last paragraph. The rest sounds good - although it is a pity the girls don't get the same fun package as the boys. There is only one purely "girl" scout association in Germany, while the other organisations are co-ed - which isn't much of a help if the program consists mostly of dodgeball, of course, but still!)
It's really sad religion so often leads to intolerance. AFAIK, there's no such rule with scouts here. I assume that there might be trouble with mobbing and group pressure, as everywhere else; but at least it's not written into law. *sighs*

[dawn_felagund]

I won't laugh! I was a Girl Scout for one year. In all honesty, the only reason I joined up was because the Girl Scouts ran a horseback riding camp and I--like many ten-year-old girls--was horse crazy. Only my parents couldn't afford real riding lessons, so a week in the woods with the occasional riding lesson was the best I got, so I went for it. I was very shy at that age (versus just a little shy now :) so wasn't up for most social activities, but I did enjoy my year in Girl Scouts. I did earn a few badges. I still have them; I'll send them to you, if you want. ;)

Unfortunately, horse camp was a bust. I managed to develop a bout of arachnophobia for the next ten years (and at the time, I still wanted to be an entomologist, so making me fear anything with more than four legs was an accomplishment); the entire week was about 40C schlepping about 18 km per day; and we "mucked the pastures," as in picking up horse manure with big rubber gloves on for hours at a time. It was so hot that sweat would pool in the fingers of the gloves. I'm not a squeamish person or at all afraid of getting dirty, but even that was a little icky for me.

I think the things you know from scouting sound awesome! I'd love to learn some of that myself. My husband and I are very "outdoorsy," as people say, but we haven't tried our hand at camping or backpacking yet. We had good intentions, but then Alex came along ... next summer, we say. :) Then Alex will either be old enough to go along or well-behaved enough that I won't feel bad foisting him on my parents for a weekend.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Your horse camp story reminds me a lot of my horseback riding adventure in the scouts. We didn't have to "muck the pastures", but we were camping on the grounds of a "normal" riding academy that had "normal" guests, and most of them (and of the riding teachers, too) seemed to consider us rather far beneath them. (We learned, for example, that the regular guests were forbidden to invite "the scouts" to their rooms; one girl we had become friendly with was reminded of that rule by her roommate. Neither of them could tell us why, and the girl who had invited us in the first place shrugged and said she didn't care, but we didn't see her often after that episode). We got riding classes in two huge groups, twenty people per group, and we got blamed when some of the horses had developed some kind of rash because they had not been cleaned well enough: Although most of us (especially the girls, of course) would have loved to spend more time with the animals and to brush them and even to mucking the stables, we simply weren't allowed to. But of course it was our fault. Grr.

I loved the riding as such, but I was so annoyed by the arrogance of the horse-people in that academy that I decided that I didn't want to have anything to do with riding academies again (to the lasting relief of my parents, I am sure, because riding lessons are a pain and there was no stable close to where we lived ("close" as in "the kid can go there on foot or by bus")). Now I am living just a five-minute walk from a stable (and the riders who pass our grounds are generally really polite). But, well, I'd feel foolish to start now, and currently I can't afford it anyway...

Well, as I said, most of the stuff I learned "from scouting" I really learned from books and from some trial and error - so I'm sure you can learn it easily enough. ;) Well, camping with a mature, well-behaved dog shouldn't be too much of a problem. (We had two dogs aboard when we were sailing: a small mongrel (male) who belonged to the skipper, and a German shepherd (female) in heat who belonged to our leader. It was... interesting. :D)

[rahja.livejournal.com]

*zerrt Lyra vor ihren kleiderschrank*

*zeigt ihre pfadfinder uniform*

*gggg*

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[vashachu.livejournal.com]

I just got to say that I love the fact you pitched a tent with one hand. This was a really great post...I loved all the great info and the glimpse into your childhood!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

As you can see, I started being weird at an early age ;)

[vashachu.livejournal.com]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that! from, another weird kid :)

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

This might suprise most people who know me, but I used to be a Member of the "Boys Brigade" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_brigade ), so no, no laughter here...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Wow, I actually never heard of that before! Sounds like mostly the same deal, only older and with a different name. So was it fun? And did you get to do adventurous things? Or was it just dodgeball and prayer?

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was fun stuff alright - camping, and activities, and sport, and prayer, and oh, just wonderful things :)

Our camp site was in a church yard, opposite the graveyard, and our "officers" were the best tellers of ghost stories ever... *Chuckle*...

*** Lost in memories mode ***