Set Of The Sails

 

"If you have ever been sailing, or at least watched sailboats, you may have noticed that two sailboats can sail in different directions in the same breeze. The trick is in knowing how to set your sails. That's true of Scouts' progress, too. Let me read a very short play to explain what I mean. "

"Act 1: Curtain. Two boys enter to join a Scout troop. Curtain closes. Time passes. The curtain parts again. "

"Act 2: Same scene two or three years later. Where are the Scouts who joined the troop in act 1? There's one! He's an Eagle now. And there's the other! But he's only wearing the Second Class badge. Why? They both had the same chance. One of them sailed ahead, taking advantage of all opportunities. The other just limped along. It must be the set of their sails.

"Poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox said it this way:
One ship drives east and another drives west,
With the selfsame winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails and not the gales,
Which tells us the way to go. "

 

 

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