The Purple Patch

A couple nights ago at our Troop meeting we had a Scout attend who hasn’t been able to attend for a couple months. While participating in one of the activities he made a comment about “I’m not a Scout…” as he was deferring his level of input to the other Scouts in attendance who’ve been progressing rock-steady with their advancement. I pointed his attention to the purple patch on his uniform worn above his heart – “Everyone who wears that patch” I said, “is a Scout – and so are you.”
It was nearly 2 and a half years ago that I started blogging. While I try not to be too obsessed with the statistics of visitors, it has helped me to get visibility into what topics attract the most attention. Last night I noticed a search query hitting the blog that was not in English. With the help of Google Translate I found out that what had been searched for – and landed someone here at my little soap-box, was a search (in Hebrew) for Patch of the World Scout Movement. Two things struck me – one, how the internet continues to be an amazing resource, and second was humility that someone searching on the icon that unites all Scouts worldwide, had found there way from across the globe – to me.
Of any of the patches on my uniform, the World Scout Emblem is the one I value most. I have a couple knots for service, and my “Trained” patch that I was proud to earn, but what matters most is being apart of the global family that is Scouting. I’ll be honest I get a real kick out of every time I see an episode of Man vs. Wild, where Bear Grylls wears the patch on his right sleeve at all times.

Bear Gryllls, Chief Scout and host/star of Man vs. Wild on Discovery.

Uniforms and “neckers” vary from country to country. The purple patch is one that is shared by all and represents what has been true since the founding days of BP, whether in Brooklyn or Benghazi “A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other scout, no matter to what social class the other belongs.”

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