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An Important Note from the Curator: Carpe Deim

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In the film Dead Poets Society there is a scene in which the teacher takes a group of students to look at a display cabinet of school history – ancient trophies and photos of the young men who won them; young men with the whole wide world laid out before them. We look into the faces, seeing hints of their personalities in their eyes, their posture and expressions. And then we are informed that each and every one of them is now food for daffodils. The teacher has his students lean in and listen as he whispers the message of eternal youth: Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives glorious.

This may seem rather abstract and far removed from our lives, but upon reflection, we realize that  in Post 52 we have shared something truly marvelous and that we are the boys in those photographs. We also realize that of all the valuable things that we may have experienced in our lives, if we do not share them with others, they will one day simply vanish.

We lived through the golden era of the Scouting program – a time when the Scout-O-Rama drew more visitors than any other event in Fort Worth. It was a time when the OA rolls had more than 2,300 members and the Longhorn Council had what must have been 40,000 boys in Scouting. It was absolutely huge and our little corner of it was very, very special.

Those were amazing days and what we experienced through Scouting had a deep, permanent and extraordinarily valuable impact on our lives. This is what we, from the perspective of troop and post 52 and other units with a 52 connection, can share with future generations.

This blog represents a race against time and a race against the distractions of day to day life. We are as impermanent as anyone else and our time is limited. As the decades have passed we have in the process of passing as well: Michael Osbourne, Richard Lewis, Jack, Panda – and, sooner or later, all of us.

Let's make a record of our experience. Let's tell the generations what it was like. Between us, we have the tales of four generations – more than enough to create a truly fascinating, informative, entertaining, and touching narrative of our experiences as part of one of the most profound, yet little understood cultural phenomena in history. If we can generate enough content – if we can set aside the time and make the effort – we can create a really great record of our collective experience. And from this we can create an eBook that can be distributed freely and easily, seeding it in such a way that it will not vanish as everything on the Internet eventually vanishes, along with ourselves.

Are we up for this? Are we prepared to preserve this wonderful thing that we have experienced? I think that we are, so let's start posting – anedcotes, facts, photos and more. Every little thing is important, so let;s make the most of it.

As the teacher said, carpe diem. Let's seize the day, boys. Let's make this archive glorious.