by Csaba Orbán, translated by Helen Szablya
#2 The scouts truthfully carry out their responsibilities, which they owe
to God, their homeland and to their fellow human beings.
Our troop started a series of articles in Januray 2022, in order to make the essence of our movement, and the teaching tools of the Hungarian scout movement based on the ten scout laws more understandable for those who are not familiar with them yet, but would like to know more about them.
As we wrote earlier, at the beginning of the last century, when the dream of the scouting idea was born there was a need to to build into the life of young people a moral code, acceptable to them without being forced. This code, or regulations or laws can be understood and accepted by most young people because they quickly discover that it is good for themselves, for their immediate friends and for all of humanity.
Soon the laws were drafted and since then they have been often modified. Today, scouts in many countries, and even organizations within the country can have different laws of scouting, but this difference is mainly about form and the number of the laws. The essence remains and is united: to educate a better, more caring generation than the previous one was…
For the Hungarian scouts (not for the cub scouts) the law is drafted into ten points. They are like the laws of Moses, but they differ in that the scout laws do not command, they show the way.
Today we are looking at the second law: The scouts truthfully carry out their responsibilities, which they owe to God, to their homeland and to their fellow human beings.
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This law, as all the ten laws, has only one meaning and cannot be misunderstood by the honest person, but for those who are superficial, or dubious I would like to cite a few words of other people’s wisdom.
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I heard this little story recently. I liked it very much, so I am using it as an introduction.
A wanderer who underestimated the cruelty of the desert and having run out of the life-giving water, tired and almost losing hope, glimpsed a fence in the distance. First he did not believe his eyes. He thought fate and his fantasy are mocking him, but he collected his last strength and targeted the fence. As he neared the fence it became clearer that it was something created by a human. Now, his otherwise fatigued muscles flew him to his goal with renewed strength. His life instinct overcame his despairing will and he ran towards the fence.
The gate was open, so he did not pay it too much attention. He ran into the little fenced yard. There he recognized a small well pump. He feverishly looked for the arm of the little machine. He soon found it and started jerking it ecstatically.
The machine answered to each jerk with an empty click. Our traveler still had enough strength to calm himself and treat the machine gentler. Pump arm up, pump arm down… Carefully… Click… Our traveler repeated the process, doing always something else, but the result was always the same… The sound click, no water.
Our traveler got angry and looked around to maybe find a shovel because than he would dig himself for the source of the water, even if it killed him. At that moment the light of the sun lit up on a bottle in the shade of the fence.
He ran there and screwed the top off the bottle with trembling hands. He licked the content of the bottle. It was warm, vapid water, but good water… clean. It did not bother him now that it was warm. He drank the content of the bottle with huge swallows and great gasps. He was only sorry that in his hurry the water dripping down on the two sides of his mouth was absorbed by the dry earth without a trace. Our traveler let himself take a second to look around more thoroughly only after the bottle was empty. He just then noticed the posters – worn and covered with dust, but exactly the same – that stared at him from the gate, the well and beside the bottle. They advertised with big sullen words:
WANDERER!
- READ THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE END BEFORE YOU WOULD DO ANYTHING ELSE!
- ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE YARD YOU CAN FIND A BOTTLE OF WATER, WHICH IS AN INDISPENSABLE LUBRICANT FOR THE OPERATION OF THE WATER PUMP. DO NOT DRINK FROM THIS WATER BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED THE BOTTLE’S FULL CONTENT TO START THE PUMP.
- POUR THE WATER INTO THE PIPE OF THE WELL (THERE IS ONLY ONE)
- START PUMPING AND AT THE SECOND PUMPING THE WATER WILL START RUNNING.
- THERE IS PLENTY OF DRINKING WATER UNDER THE EARTH (YOU CAN USE IT EVEN FOR WASHING YOURSELF) BUT WITHOUT THE STARTER BASE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO START THE PUMP.
- HOWEVER, BEFORE USING THE WATER OF THE WELL, FILL UP THIS WATER AGAIN AND PLACE IT TO THE PLACE, WHERE YOU FOUND IT, SO THE WANDERERS ARRIVING AFTER YOU SHOULD ALSO HAVE REFRESHMENT!
- HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY!
It goes without saying that the eyes of our wanderer obscured, and we can only imagine what happened after he reached the end of the text…
Poor wanderer, if he had only known what he should have done. If he could have reined in his instincts, if he had only trusted that we are not alone, even when we think we are… If only…
The scouts always have to know what their homeland, God and the love of our fellow human beings mean. For our troop 45 the following is written:
Mission: According to Gábor Bodnár: ”The Hungarian scouts living abroad have a dual duty. They work honestly for the country, which accepted them, or where they were born. However, they also serve the Hungarians, to whom they are bound through their culture, traditions and their family.”
Message from our Given Name: just like all the scout troops, so also for us the first and most important is to educate the character of our member, to live according to the laws of the scout.
Our Given Name is István Fekete, about whom Imre Nagy Domokos writes:
“Our duty is, to always guard him in our hearts. We know there was someone, named István Fekete and no one could write more beautifully about the nature of Hungary than he. The best way we can guard his memory is by keeping alive that love his writings radiate towards nature and people.”
We summarize the values of our troop in 3 points:
• Always, whenever possible: young in spirit, ready to play, energetic, curious, discovering.
• Always, when necessary: wise, ready to help, polite, thoughtful, tender.
• Always: AS BEFITS A SCOUT
The scouts truthfully carry out their responsibilities, which they owe to God,
to their homeland and to their fellow human beings!