all i could think while watching these two boys—who couldn't have been older than 12 or 13—explain what they witnessed, how they reacted, what they're feeling now, was that if i ever have a son, he is becoming a Boy Scout. i have never seen more mature, well-spoken, sensitive adolescent boys. and this was a mere hours after a tornado destroyed their camp, killed four of their friends, changed their lives.
i was a Brownie and a Junior Girl Scout back in the day, and i suppose i gained some important things from that experience—mad skills with popsicle sticks, for example, and that neat silver Frisbee i won for selling enough cookies—but i never learned how to apply a tourniquet or how to give CPR or what steps to take if a natural disaster descended and, say, ripped the roof off a building i happened to be in.
i was amazed and humbled and heartened and heartbroken watching those boys this morning. their parents were standing behind them during the interview, and you could tell that they were still shell-shocked, having come thisclose to losing their babies, and, it seemed, as stunned as i was at their poise and eloquence.
i have a feeling these boys are more prepared for life than most people my age. most people period.
mb
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