"Do Your Best"

In a heartbeat, all the wonderment over what the boy scouts did in their hut during my time as a brownie and then a girl scout was demystified. I've waited at least 20some years to figure out what the "secret" handshake was all about. When prodded about what went on in their "den" meetings, a hush would fall over the opposite sex. There really was no big secret as to what we did. We crafted. No one who was a boy scout would ever tell us what they did. You know how it is when you're growing up...you would giggle, try to get the boys to tell you and they would then turn all machismo on you as the coveted handshake was forbidden to be used on....uck...bluckkkkk...girls.

Well, as a proud mom of a 1st grader, I am now a proud mommy of a tiger cub. HS went to his very first den meeting last night and loved it. He paraded with the other little boys to put the flag up on the post (resembling a pack of cats...everyone was marching to the tune of their own drummer), tried their best to the hang the flag without it touching the ground (very hard for little people who are already shorter than the flag is long), stood back proudly and saluted the flag and then the most boisterous rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance that I've ever heard. After the opening ceremony it was onward into the nitty gritty of the den meeting. HS stood awkwardly beside another new tiger cub and tried his best to recite the Cub Scout promise

Cub Scout Promise
I, (name), promise to do my best
To do my duty to God and my country,
To help other people, and
To obey the Law of the Pack.

and then the motto

Cub Scout Motto
Do your best!

He stood so proudly with his two fingers raised as he mirrored the den leader and with gumption and pride said his words. He has been looking forward to this moment for a long time. They then turned to one another and gave the secret greeting handshake. I stared in disbelief. That's it? That's all there is to that? I felt a little bummed as I realized that my girlfriends and I were such goons. We had really played up this handshake business and goodness if it wasn't a little let down to see it in person. On the way home, I asked HS what his favorite, funniest, and worst moments of his 1st den meeting were. Silence from the back seat. Contemplation went on for a few moments. A huge sigh and then:

"Well, my favorite was the eating. My funniest was getting the goop on me during the making of our bird feeder and the worst was that everyone has a guidebook to being a tiger cub and I don't...."

I tried hard to contain the laughter as I realized that yes, we are raising a very type A child. It's all about the book. He'll get that next den meeting. Until then, HS swears that if any girls ask him what he did at his den meeting, he isn't going to tell them. "What about the handshake?" I ask. "Nope! Mommy, that's a secret...only to be shared with other fellow cub scouters!" Is that in the guidebook? I never heard them ever utter that it was a secret handshake, but hey, somethings are better as the great unknown...it leads to better stories.

Ahhh...the sworn to secrecy continues...I'd tell you, but then you'd have to silence me.