Tonight, I helped kill Troop 78, a unit located in Feasterville where I’ve spent nearly a score years. We had a banquet as a swan song and to recognize its former leader, Leon Duminiak, a volunteer for three times the lifespan of the Beatles. I didn’t do much during the day otherwise besides help prepare for and then emcee the event, so for you daily entry I’ll merely recall my eulogy.

I don’t enjoy most prayers as they quickly sound like Christmas lists.  ‘Dear God, thank you for friends and family, and my horsie and my new shoes’ and so on.  In Troop 78 I’ve found a prayer that I’d like to use to start meals that would prove far better at reflecting on the profundity and amazement that I’ve regularly experienced in Scouting which I learned from Leon Duminiak whether he knows it or not.  Let me explain:

During our 1997 stay at Ockanickon, our propane tree lit on fire and started shoot flame out of an incorrectly sealed bushing.  I ran to tell Mr. Duminiak who had probably seen our accidental flamethrower and he responded after a second with a “hm…”

During the 1998 Camporee, our troop had built bungie-powered siege weapons and my patrol’s device was a trebuchet that launched 4 foot rods about 200 feet.   Shortly after a successful test launch, some kids started trying to catch the projectiles, I told Mr. Duminiak and he responded after a second with a “hm…”

During our troop’s 1999 stay at Ockanickon we had constructed an impromptu fix for a broken tarp.  The patch broke shortly thereafter the area of tarps where water tends to pool soaking our pile of health forms as we waited for med rechecks.  Someone told Mr. Duminiak the good news and he responded after a second with a “hm…”

The mind-boggling situations of life are often beyond our immediate ability to fashion words and I think bloviating praise for a deity is insulting.  I think it was be far more effective to send a prayer in humility, take a moment to think of sitting in the warm embrace of infinity and respond after a second with a solid “hm…”