Back in Boy Scouts my friend and fellow Eagle Scout Bryan Mack told a story that I really liked. One day at camp one of the Scouting executives was criticizing a Scout about their work at camp and Bryan said to him, "Sir, your gig line isn't straight." The executive immediately lost the train of thought that he was in and looked down to see if what he said was true. The gig line is the imaginary line that runs from your buttons to your belt to your pants. If all three are in line you look nice, but if they are a little off it's easy to notice. If they are way off, you look ridiculous. The executive looked ridiculous.I'm not sure why, but I think about this story a lot even though I heard Bryan tell it about ten years ago. Bryan is a respectful and kind person who I have always admired and he was merely pointing out something that most of us often forget, we should really take care of ourselves before we start criticizing others. That could mean being kind before you tell others to be kind, or in some cases making sure your pants are on right.
"To straighten the crooked. You must first do a harder thing - straighten yourself." Buddha
