Ahoy readers! How are you doing in your corner of the universe? You haven’t run into any alien invasions, super villains, or atmospheric pressures I hope. Very good!
Gonna just write a story today. Writing stories is kinda why I chose Write Teller as the name for this blog. Telling fictional stories is something I don’t mind doing with a smile on my face. But instead of using my voice to tell them, I write them. And as they say, that is how it all began.
I’m dedicating this story to the youth of the world. Let’s blog!
“Okay. Who’s ready to tell us what the Cub Scout promise is? I see your hand up Richey. Go ahead.” Richey was the only fourth grader in Cub Pack 391. He was also the most athletic, a good student, and a natural born chatter box.
“Yup Mr. Deveneaux. I think I know most of it.” “That’s good, go on.” “Okay. I, Richey McClendon, promise to do my best… Uh… Uh… To do… To do… To do my duty to God.” Richey stopped there to wrinkle up his forehead and struggle with his memory. In only two seconds he won the struggle and continued. “I know! To do my duty to God and my country.” Another two seconds he struggled mentally, and then said out loud. “To help other… Uh… To help other people?” “That’s right Richey. Go on,” Mr. Deveneaux encouraged. Richey smiled in triumph. “And to obey the law of the pack.” “Very good Richey! Now who can tell me what all that means? Anybody? …What? Nobody?! Aww c’mon you guys. How bout you Minh Le? What does doing your best mean?”
“Well Mr. Deveneaux, my dad says that doing our best means you got to go past what’s easy.” Minh Le was Cub Pack 391’s only straight “A” student, a little small for his age, and the least talkative boy in Pack 391. Mr. Deveneaux knew that he could always count on Minh Le for a good answer. “Thank you Minh Le. That’s very good answer! And your dad is so right!”
Richard Deveneaux looked around the table enthusiastically, at the four boys who were seated there. He had the look of a very wise and fatherly man in his fifties. He stood at the head of the table, looking very military in his Cub Master uniform. And could hardly wait to ask his next question. “Now guys, who can tell me about doing your best for God and for your country? No, not you Richey. Give one of the other boys a chance. C’mon guys… Somebody? Ah good. Kelvan’s got his hand up. Attaboy! Go ahead Kelvan.”
Kelvan Williams was a fifth grader, and the tallest Cub Scout in Pack 391. He was also the Pack’s fastest runner, and video game champ. He gave Mr. Deveneaux a quick smile and answered, “My mom told me that doing my best for God is like how I should clean my room when nobody is watching me. And not put trash where it’s not suppose to go. Like under my bed or at the back of my closet.” “Ha ha ha. Close enough Kelvan. I agree one hundred percent with Kelvan’s mom. Doing our best for God means doing the right thing no matter if anybody is watching us or not.”
From the Cub Scouts seated at the big wooden picnic table in front of him, a hand went up in the air. “Yes Richey. You have a question?”
“Yes sir. I just want to know, is doing our best for God the same as how we should do it for our country?” Mr. Deveneaux couldn’t help but smile. If Richey had the time, he would ask a question every minute of the day. But Mr.Deveneaux was very happy to answer this one for him.
“Almost Richey. You see, doing our best for our country means that we vote for people that will help our country make good laws that will help and protect its citizens, and by us choosing to be good citizens. But doing our best for God is different. It means praying for people we know and everybody else. And forgiving people, and doing good things like obeying our parents and teachers, and doing good deeds. But most important, to love God and people as much as we can.”
Another hand went up. “How do we be good citizens, Mr. Deveneaux?” Kelvan asked. “Oh lot’s of ways Kelvan. By not stealing or doing anything to hurt somebody. Another way to be a good citizen is by getting what we want by being willing to work for it. You know? Like when we cut Mrs. Oglemeyers yard for her, and the time we helped Mr. Tegler fix his front gate, so that we could all go to the movies.”
“But let’s talk about something else that helps people.” “Like what Dad?” “Glad you asked Martreece. Martreece Deveneaux was Mr. Deveneaux’s youngest son. He also was a fifth grader, a very good sketch artist, and a local football star. Mr. Deveneaux looked straight at Martreece and replied, “Like sharing. How many of you guys know that sharing is the greatest way to help somebody. All of you? That’s good! But let me tell you about another kind of sharing first.”
“What if I gave Richey a box of cookies to share with all of you. How should he share them?” “Should everybody get the same amount of cookies?” All the boys verbally agreed. “Great! All of you guys are exactly right! But what if Richey decided to share this way? What if he gave each of you only one cookie, and two for himself. And then he gave each of you two cookies, and three for himself. Is that sharing, yes or no?” The boys were all stymied. They had to give this kind of sharing a little bit of thought. It was sharing alright, but not the kind of sharing they would ever put up with.
It took no more than a second for Martreece to frown and give his strongest opinion. “Dad, I don’t want to get in any trouble for saying this, but I think that kind of sharing is gonna start a fight.” All the boys agreed right away with Martreece’s strong opinion. Mr. Deveneaux fully expected this reaction. He smiled and chuckled his amusement. “You boys have a really good point there. But before you guys get to fixing it up in your minds that this kind of sharing calls for tough love, let me just tell you something.”
He folded his arms across his chest, gave a serious look, and then said, “If Richey counted out more cookies for himself than he counted out to any of you, that would still be sharing. But it would be a selfish kind of sharing.” The boys received this bit of news the same way a person would who found a parking ticket stuck to their windshield. -Which explained why they were all looking at Mr. Deveneaux like he had just spoken to them in Chimpanzee.
Mr. Deveneaux knew his Cub Scouters very well. He knew he had only seconds to say something before the boys turned into a yelling committee.
Selfish sharing? None of them had ever heard of this kind of sharing before. Sharing had always meant a good thing for them. Especially if they were the share-ees. -And they were always use to everyone getting a fair share. The shock of hearing about selfish sharing had them silently thinking about what they would do if they ever ran into somebody that wanted to share with them this way. But as boys will be boys, they quickly got to the point where thinking wasn’t as good as talking. -Which was a split second before Mr. Deveneaux started talking again.
“Alright alright, I see you guys are confused. So let’s go ahead and look at a better example, okay? Say we all decided to go camping and everybody said they would do something to help set up our camp. But we all decided to bring only a big bag of popcorn to the camp, and decided that we weren’t going to do anything else that day, but go fishing. And what if Richey brought his bag of popcorn to camp and tried to talk us all out going fishing. But we went anyway, and he stayed to set the camp up all by himself.” The boys were all trying to picture this not too likely picture as Mr. Deveneaux went on to say…
“What if Richey hauled all of the food from the cars to our campsite, gathered all the firewood we would need for the night, and set up all the tents, and nobody helped him.” Seeing the eagerness in Richey’s face, Mr. Deveneaux added. No Richey, I would never let that happen to you. You know me better than that.”
Richey was very glad to hear his Cub Master telling him that he wasn’t going to become a Cub Scout flunkey. Gratefully he closed his mouth and let himself relax back into his chair again. The rest of the boys eased up snickering at Richey’s reactions, while Mr. Deveneaux worked on getting his smile back under control, before he began speaking again.
“Al-right. Now that everyone knows that I was just making an example… But yeah. What if Richey did all the things that I just mentioned, and the rest of us only brought a big bag of popcorn to the camp, and did nothing else? Would our bringing just a bag of popcorn to camp, and no other help, be okay with Richey when we got back from going fishing?”
Kelvan wasn’t really sure, but he nodded yes, but suddenly changed his mind and said no, then he quickly looked around to see how everyone else was answering. Kelvan saw that each of his Pack-Mates was wearing the same uncomfortable look he was, and wondered what just what in all outdoors they were thinking about.
But the awkward silence was broken when a voice timidly asked, “This is what you meant by selfish sharing Mr. Deveneaux?” “Yes Minh Le. Like your dad says, doing our best means going past what is easy. If Richey did everything to set up the camp, he would be doing his best to share. The rest of us would not be doing our best to share, wouldn’t you all agree?” The boys all nodded yes. Mr. Deveneaux nodded with them, along with all the fathers, and asked, “So what do you think Richey would be thinking about if we tried to share our bags of popcorn with him after that?”
The boys all sat up a little bit straighter. They were really getting to know the meaning of selfish sharing now, and were very much inspired not ever share selfishly.
Kelvan was the first Cub scout to speak up. “I think that Richey wouldn’t like us anymore, because selfish sharing is not okay.” “That’s what I say too,” Martreece added. “Now that I know what selfish sharing is, I’m never going to be okay with it,” Minh Le said seriously. That left only Richey to say what he thought. And he lost no time in doing so. “I would still like everybody. And I know that I don’t ever want to share selfishly.” he said proudly.
Mr. Deveneaux looked at the smiling faces of all his Cub Scouts, and their fathers who were sitting next to them. He felt like he would never be prouder of them than he was right at this moment. They made his being a Cub Master a great thing to be. But he became curious.
A while ago, he remembered that Kelvan had nodded yes, when he was asked if he thought that his bringing a big bag of popcorn to camp, and no other help, would be okay with Richey.
Mr. Deveneaux couldn’t help but wonder what had changed his mind so fast. But as quick as he thought about why Kelvan had changed his mind, he had made up his mind not to ask him. Kelvan changed his mind, and that was more than enough for Mr. Richard Deveneaux.
Thanks again for reading here. And may God shower you with everything you can’t live without. B. Y. E.