Life's Little Ironies

Old Scouters Never Die
Tune and lyrics: based on the old army song;
“Old Soldiers Never Die”- Unknown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQLd18y0X70

Old Scouters never die
They just get carried away.

There is a cooking fire, not far away
Where we get dutch oven fare, three times a day
Beefsteak they never see, hidden without lock or key
And we just get carried away.

Old scouters never die
Never die, never die
Old scouters never die
They just get carried away.

Cub Scouts they love to cheer, most every day
Boy Scouts they love to hike, that’s what they say
Scout masters get a thrill; lead their boys up the hill
So we must get our thrills until they carry us away.

Baden Powell, what would he say?
New Eagle Scouts every day
When the dusty trail comes to an end
They’ll just fly us away.

Old scouters never die
Never die, never die
Old scouters never die
They just carry them away.

I remember watching the Film "MacArthur" with Gregory Peck some years ago and reading the book "Reminiscences" the autobiography of General Douglas MacArthur. There is a line from the book that quotes an old barracks ballad from WWI; "Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away". As you already know, I adapted the lyrics to fit in with something I really enjoy doing; being involved with scouting.

The funny thing is I found the song on youtube a while ago and tagged the link to my blog profile. Last night I was feeling a little down on myself and deleted most of my profile and edited the section on "about yourself". I typed in; I'm a nobody and in the interests section I put down that I had none that anyone would care to hear about. Yeah, I know, self pity is like buyer's remorse; once you perceive to have done something seemingly stupid or not, the guilt takes over and you kick yourself a few times. God knows it is something I have gotten good at over the years and it certainly does not help when you are unemployed and feeling lost in the world. I cannot imagine how Douglas MacArthur could have felt like he was fading away when he quoted the song in his farewell address at West Point. Even after his colorful and illustrious larger than life career, he seems to have felt like he was fading away. Maybe the image of ourselves is the last thing to go as age gets the better of us.

I watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" tonight and the same theme seemed to pop out from the screen as the final credits rolled down my TV screen. Whether growing older or getting younger, we still face our own mortality. While growing older presents all the deteriorating side affects of life, I think Benjamin losing his mind and then finding one tiny piece of recognition in the end so ironic. Even though he could not express his fear or loss of a lifetime of memories, he grew old and died like Elizabeth did with few differences and as many regrets. Just goes to show how life is full of little ironies.