Back In the Saddle Again... Almost!

The funny thing about being "back in the saddle again" is that they can put you in the saddle a couple of ways: you can sit in the saddle or they can drape you across it! I'm not quite sure whether I'm sitting or draped yet! I really thought that I'd get something written before now - and without a nudge (Thanks, Dan!) - but getting back to full work days has been a little more challenging than I thought that it would be. The good news is that my stamina seems to be back now - more or less - and that should get me back into the swing of writing again too. I also will have temporary access to a laptop which will allow me to blog from home some. That will help because the thing that drives me out of the office at the end of the day most often is that I get hungry and tired. If I can work from home on the blog that will allow me to take care of the necessaries and still write.

My time since I have gotten back to the office has been involved with trying to think through goals for the year and to work on a business plan to help drive my business. It is funny to realize that I have been doing business for two years without a clear direction. I hope that will be changed by the end of this month! Someone asked me last week if I was trying to ease back into the flow of work. I told them "You ease back into real estate like you ease into a professional wrestling ring!" You might try to sneak in, but the chances are that someone is going to grab you and drag you into the melee kicking and screaming - whether that was your plan or not! I guess that is how I managed to go two years without a clear business plan. I've also been wading through the tons of email that was waiting for me upon my arrival!

This past week I went to Orlando for a trade convention and had a lot of time to read on my trip. Shortly before I headed to Orlando I stopped by a Scouting supply store and picked up the latest edition of the Boy Scout Handbook and the Boy Scout Fieldbook. I was able to read about 75% of the Handbook on the way to and from Orlando. (Daytona 500 traffic helped with this a good bit!) As I was reading the handbook I was reminded of a plan that I had to write about some character traits that the BSA holds dear. On the way back I decided that I would try to write about the elements of the Scout Oath, Law, Motto, and Slogan. They contain such great direction for character building, however, some of their meaning is hard to grasp.

The Oath begins with the words, "On my honor...." I remember as a Scout just blowing by these words without much of a thought. In fact, I think that the explanation of the meaning of this phrase in the Handbook leads to this kind of mental dismissal. It basically says that the phrase is just a statement that you are making a promise. However, the words "my honor" convey so much more than a mere promise.

Honor is a concept that is quickly fading from the American mindset - yet it was once so very strong in our people. A brief perusal of the biographies of many of the personalities of the American Civil War make it blatantly clear that honor was a central theme in the lives of the men and women of the period. (Thank God for the US Marines who are one of the last great bastions of the true meaning of this concept!)

Anyway, my intention is to write in this blog about these different concepts and hopefully distill them down into something that will be useful and instructive for young boys that are in the process of becoming men. I will certainly appreciate your input and thoughts on these concepts. I will probably write about them from various perspectives and using differing styles so I expect your comments will be enlightening.

I hope to perhaps have the first installment ready for tomorrow so check back here this week!

On a totally different train of thought, while I was in Florida I was able to visit the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. If you haven't been there recently, you really should visit. The last time I was there was in 1988 and there really wasn't that much going on of excitement. Now there are numerous video presentations including several IMAX movies. There is a museum dedicated to the Saturn V / Apollo program that is phenomenal (it includes a fully restored Saturn V rocket and numerous other exhibits.) There is also a full-sized space shuttle display and the Astronaut Hall of Fame. I enjoyed this visit tremendously and look forward to being able to go back and see the things that I missed this time. It is totally worth the cost of admission!