Dave: I completely agree with your assessment of an amazingly spiritual side of the Philmont experience. While the breathtaking scenery is conducive to thinking of things greater than yourself, most of our crew was not particularly religious or introspective. Our Ranger, a wonderfully philosophical outdoorsman named Kevin Clegg, introduced the Crew to Philmont reflections our first night out at Rayado River Camp. By the second night on the trail, Thorns, Roses, and Buds (TRBs as the guys called them) was an integral part of our daily hike. In fact the Crew insisted in holding TRBs no matter how tired they were. (The only exception was at Phillips Camp in the middle of a howling all night rain/hail storm. Even then they did an abbreviated tent-to-tent version.)
We had an exceptional Chaplain who made devotions and reflections a special part of each hike. And the Crew Chief often selected some of the most awe inspiring spots on the trail to hold daily devotions during packs-off breaks.
Our last day we stopped for our final trail lunch at Tooth Camp on our way in to basecamp. It was amazing to see normally cynical 16-20 year old teenagers stop for a full hour to hold a final trail devotional and explore what Philmont meant to them. Even more surprising was an impromptu TRB held behind our tents at Camping Headquarters at 10 PM the last night at Philmont. After everyone had their say, there weren't too many dry eyes in the circle of brothers. How much they had grown in spirit over the too-short twelve day adventure.
Such is the magic of Philmont.
Jim Krempel
Sr Advisor 710H '04
Severn, MD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Parmly" <PARMLYD@pilottravelcenters.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list philmont" <philmont@troop47.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 8:33 AM
Subject: RE: [Philmont] - philmont Digest - V01 #1103
Mr. Fisher wins the prize, and prompts me to apologize for using
internal abbreviations without explanation. In my daily Phil-journal,
"RTB&D" was my shorthand for that nightly process.
I have said repeatedly that I feel the nightly process of RTB&D was the
true gift that Philmont gave to our crew. For all of our logistical and
physical preparation, we had done very little spiritual preparation.
Fortunately, in the words of our ranger, we had the most "spiritually
mature" crew he had ever taken out. Our crew did not merely tolerate
RTB&D, as a nightly chore. They embraced it, they used it to it's
fullest. We were fortunate to have a Crew Leader who made it important
and a Chaplain who led them well. We advisors were amazed each night by
the insight and the maturity expressed by our youth. The willingness to
share nightly in RTB&D was what made them willing to be open throughout
the day. Conflicts would arise, and be hashed out and resolved on the
spot, and cast into the sea of forgetfulness never to be seen again. To
hear a boy say, "My biggest thorn today was myself." And then proceed to
ask forgiveness of his mates and to see them offer it generously was
really moving...and that happened in our closing RTB&D on Day 11,
waiting for the bus at the Webster Lake turnaround. The guys knew there
would be no time for it later in the day, so they wanted to do it right
away.
If I'm preparing a crew for Philmont or any High Adventure activity
(Northern Tier has a similar devotional booklet.), I would be sure to do
a nightly process on your prep hikes like RTB, and if you have a
devotional that's appropriate, put the "D" in place as well. We have
been doing it for years in a modified version. Our Troop calls it
"reflections" and it's a BSA-taught thing. We ask 2 questions: "What
went well for you today?" and "What would you like to see done
differently in the future?" I'm sure this regular exposure to the
expression of emotions and feelings was instrumental in the openness our
kids demonstrated at Philmont, enhanced by being days removed from
worldly distractions, etc. Boys tend to be reserved with expressing
feelings, IMO, until they feel there is no embarrassment in doing so.
Once they are comfortable like that, watch out!
I cannot say it enough: THE PHILMONT DEVOTIONAL BOOK AND THE PROCESS OF
ROSES/THORNS/BUDS IS THE HIDDEN SECRET TO PHILMONT'S SUCCESS.
Dave Parmly
I used to be a Bobwhite SR424
IWTGBTP!
-----Original Message-----
From: philmont-request@troop47.com [mailto:philmont-request@troop47.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 1:02 AM
To: Philmont
Subject: [Philmont] - philmont Digest - V01 #1103
philmont Digest Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:01:42 -0500 V01 #1103
Today's topics:
'RE: [Philmont]: RE: Principles and Techniques'
'Re: [Philmont]: RE: Principles and Techniques'
'Re: [Philmont]: Lyrics to "Edge of Texas"?'
'RTB&D'
'=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20[Philmont]:=A0=20RE:=A0=20Principles=20and=20?=
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Techniques?='
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 10:04:14 -0500
From: "R Fisher" <ghotier@texas.net>
Subject: RE: [Philmont]: RE: Principles and Techniques
IMO Roses, Thorns, Buds & Devotional
Happy Trails,
Roy Fisher
> what is RTB&D?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 14:35:25 EDT
From: BDMartin57@aol.com
Subject: Re: [Philmont]: RE: Principles and Techniques
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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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Received on Tue Aug 31 20:30:08 2004
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