A cub no more

Aidan is no longer a Cub Scout. On Tuesday evening, he participated in a "moving up" ceremony where he walked across a rope bridge to join his new Boy Scout troop. (Every time I say or think about moving up, the theme song from "The Jeffersons" runs through my head.)

He took a tentative step onto the bridge:

Then paused for a photo from the mamarazzi:

Once across the bridge, he was welcomed by the members of his new troop, who placed a Boy Scout neckerchief around his neck:

Aidan was all smiles, happy and proud to now be a Boy Scout:

 

James and I are proud of our new Boy Scout, and pleased to be done with the local Cub Scout pack. We are careful to teach our children how to fight back against bullies and yet they can see examples of bullying by adults towards other adults in this local Cub Scout pack. And while Aidan had a great experience in both Georgia and New York Cub Scout packs, my already marginal opinion of Scouts in general has not improved. 

As you can probably guess, I am opposed to the Boy Scouts of America's prejudicial policy prohibiting homosexual leaders and members. That policy was the main reason I was hesitant to allow Aidan to join Cub Scouts, but James convinced me that the merits of Scouting outweighed the negatives. We also knew that what we teach at home will always trump the discriminatory policies of any organization. Despite what we teach with our words and our example, I still hope that the Boy Scouts of America will change their policy. And truly change it, not just push the decision to the local chapters.

I don't know that Aidan has really learned much from being a Scout, but he has certainly had fun and I hope he has even more fun with his new troop.

Lessons learned at the mall

I went to a shopping mall on Sunday. That may not seem all that momentous until you learn that I loathe going to a mall. Loathe with a capital "L". Shopping at a mall, for me, is an occasional necessity: it is not sport, nor hobby, nor entertainment. There is nothing wrong with shopping being any of those things for other people but they just aren't for me. I don't care to window shop, I don't like the crowds, and since yarn stores and liquor stores are rarely located in malls, there just isn't much of interest to me. If I need to buy something at the mall, I park near the store I need to visit, and get in/out as quickly as possible.

Just to show how little I like going to malls: the last time I wandered around a mall just to wander around was the summer of 2011 when my mother visited, it was 95 degrees in the shade and we needed a cool place to spend the day. It was still a relief to leave.

Aidan and a friend wanted to see a movie* and the best theaters in our area are located in malls, so off we went. We arrived around 12:45 and it was already packed. On a Sunday. On a beautiful Sunday. James just chuckled at me as I pondered why anyone would want to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon at a mall.

The people watching was, of course, astounding, and the following maxims were made abundantly clear:

• There should be a weight limit on spandex leggings or, at the very least, should have a "contents under pressure" warning label. I can say this as an above ideal weight person who never wears yoga pants outside my house.

• Teens and tweens travel in packs, much like birds and/or wild animals. Unlike birds and wild animals, however, they do not move in concert or instinctive precision, but mill about and bump into one another and total strangers.

• Couples should never, EVER dress alike. This truth crosses all gender, racial and age lines.

• A little animal print goes a long way. I adore me some animal print, but as Julia Child said, "Everything in moderation." Animal print as an accent is perfectly fine but head-to-toe animal print is wrong on many levels. (The actual quote is "Everything in moderation, including moderation" but the last two words didn't really fit with the point I am trying to make so I left them out. It's my blog, so I can.)

There is some good that comes out of a trip to a mall: my self-esteem gets a real boost. By wearing age appropriate clothing that is clean and fits my body, washing my face and combing my hair, I am already ahead of the pack. The pack wearing matching too tight leopard leggings with a zebra big shirt.

*Speaking of movies, I am not really much of a movie fan; I almost always prefer to read a book. But we weren't going to let two ten year olds sit in a movie theater without us and they wanted to see "Oz the Great and Powerful", so that is how James and I ended up watching a movie in which we had no interest. I look at it as two hours and ten minutes of my life that I will never get back.