名稱：steady that float
內容簡介：
Dear Arizona,
　 My Cub Scout troop wants to raise money for charity, but we can’t agree on what to do. Some of us want to do a car wash. Some want to do a carnival. We can’t decide! Any thoughts?
　 —Hoping to Help in Houston

Dear Hoping,
　 It’s so cool that you guys are going to help out a charity. But I know what it’s like to be part of a group that can’t agree—it’s seriously frustrating!

Here was the situation. My karate class was invited to be in our neighborhood’s Fourth of July parade. We were all excited about making a f loat, so we had a meeting after class one day to decide what the float should look like.

“OK,” said our sensei. “First we need to agree on a theme—something that shows what’s important to us.”

“Karate’s about respect,” said Aaron.

“And balance and strength,” said Alana.

“And awareness,” said Mareya.

“Using your mind and your body together,” said Miguel.

“So how do we show those qualities on our float?” asked our sensei.

“It could be a hamster!” said Alana.

“How in the world does a hamster show those things?” asked Robbie.

“I don’t know,” said Alana. “But hamsters are so sweet and funny. It would be the cutest float in the whole parade!”

“But we’re not trying to be cute,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Aaron. Then he added, “Maybe our float could be a gigantic spaceship!”

What does a spaceship have to do with karate?” asked Alana.

“I don’t know, but it’s better than a hamster!” said Aaron.

“Our float should be a Hawaiian beach,” said Kira. “And we could be hula dancers!”

“No, our float should be the ocean,” said Miguel. “And we could be fish!”

“Hold on!” said Mareya. “Not one of these ideas is about karate!”

“Or the qualities we discussed,” said our sensei. “Let’s all be quiet for a few moments and try to think of one quality that’s important to our karate practice, and one thing that symbolizes that quality.”

It actually felt good to be quiet for a while. And once we were calm and focused, we were able to come to an agreement. We decided to make a big yin-yang symbol. The yin-yang is a cool-looking Asian symbol that represents balance.

At our next meeting, we tried to split up the jobs for making our yin-yang symbol. But we were still having major problems communicating!

We argued about who’d get to draw the symbol. We argued about who’d get to cut up the black and white paper. We argued about who’d get to crumple the paper into little balls. And we argued about who’d glue the paper balls onto the yin-yang symbol.

We were so busy arguing that nothing was getting done!

Finally, our sensei called us into a circle. “How can we make a float about balance if we’re out of balance ourselves?”

We decided to get organized. We made a list of all the jobs that needed to be done, and we numbered each job. Then we took turns picking numbers out of a hat. That’s how we knew who would do each job.

We met six different times and got different numbers each time. And once we started cooperating, things began coming together. We worked really hard to make our f loat great.

It was cold and foggy on the morning of the parade, but it cleared up and turned out to be perfect sunny weather. And I’m not trying to brag or anything, but our f loat truly did look fantastic! It had the name of our karate school on the sides and our yin-yang symbol in the back. As we took our places on the float, we all felt really happy and proud.

Then it was time for the best part of all. The parade began, and we stood on our float and practiced our karate moves. I was half thinking about going through the moves correctly and half thinking about how cool it was to be in the parade.

Everyone cheered and clapped as we went by—especially my family.

“Way to go, Arizona!” called my dad.

“Hooray for Mission Karate Academy!” cheered my mom. Tex and Indi, my younger brother and sister, didn’t quite understand what our float was about.

“Hey, Arizona!” they shouted. “Throw us some candy!”

So, dear Hoping, maybe you and your fellow Scouts could try some of my sensei’s ideas about making decisions and working together. Just try to stay calm and focused. Once you agree on a plan, come up with a fair way to split up the work. And don’t give up, because working together to do something great can really be fun!

Ciao for now,

Arizona