[ExI] Loss - was order of the arrow

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 


>...Henry!  Far too humble you are, brave warrior!  spike



At yesterday's memorial, attendees discussed whether Steve was a pragmatist or a perfectionist.  From my view, Steve was an idealist.  He saw things as they have never been and asked, Why not?  

He realized that pragmatism settles for fair, that perfection is unattainable, but that the ideal is excellence (do pardon please my invoking Steve Van Sickle as the model human (for I might be doing that for a while (in my view the much-beloved man was worthy of it.)))

The articles MB kindly posted for us yesterday mentioned something that illustrates that organizations cannot be perfect.  Example: the writer suggested that scouts spend less time talking about a fictional version of Native American life and go cut firewood for actual Native Americans.  A collective gasp went up, as dismayed moderns shrieked "Cut fire WHAT?"  Wood fires are very nearly illegal in many places.  There is no perfection available.

Scouting is an idealist organization.  We see things as they should be.  We know life isn't fair, we know life can never be perfect.  But life is good.  Good is better than fair.  Steve was an idealist who demonstrated that our job here is to make life better, for better is better than good, even if we never make it to perfect.

spike