A Charge to Fly -

This week I went with the Boys Scouts to see a presentation at ASU’s planetarium. The presentation was fascinating. The presenters approach was to talk about ‘metaphor’ and explain how that can easily be compared to stars and the sky. He focused a lot on root words and the etymology of the names of stars and put them in the context of the myth behind the constellation, or discussed how that name tells us something about another constellation.

Probably the most interesting thing he talked about (and for sure the most controversial) is an assertion developed at ASU that the common interpretation of Orion (the most recognized constellation) is false. The stars currently interpret Orion as a hunter who is hunting a bull with his dog. But, some astrology and history professors at ASU claim that Orion was actually recognized as a constellation much earlier in history. Instead of a hunter the constellation was perceived as a female goddess. He briefly talked about this liberal position and claimed that by looking at the sky with this in mind all the other constellations around Orion make sense.

I would have liked to have learned more about it, but he kept these comments to a minimum for the kids.

Another point that is worthwhile to mention was a discussion he had with the boys about the difference between the definition of a word, and what a word actually means. For example, the word East. The definition of the word is the direction 90 degrees to the right of North. But, by looking at the origin of the word you can find out what the word actually means. It comes from the same root that the word yeast comes from. That root word means to rise. So although the definition states that east is a direction, the real meaning of the word refers to rising. Naturally this comes from the fact that the sun rises in the East. So the meaning of the word tells you more than the definition does.

He did this with several words, including the North and the moon. It would be an interesting exercise to discover what these words actually mean.

I’m going to an Eagle Court of Honor for my nephew this weekend and I thought I could apply this principle to the Eagle Scout award. What does the achieving the rank actually means? Wikipedia says that the Eagle Scout award is the highest ward attainable to the Boy Scouts of America. Additionally, in common culture an Eagle Scout is expected to be a leader, and example, and a good steward of the environment. While all these things are true I wanted to find out what this really means.

So I looked up the root of the word. Eagle comes from the Greek word Omos which literally means bird—Bird with a capital B. What do birds do? You ask any 3 year old and they’ll say they fly. This tells me that being an Eagle Scout really refers to what you will become, rather than what you have accomplished. Achieving the Eagle Scout award is really a charge to fly—to do something with your life and to make something of yourself.

What does being Eagle scout mean to you?

Scott