I didn’t realize there were so many people
here. Come on by for breakfast, Mike — small,
intimate thing, you’ll like it. Obviously humbled, honored, what a start. Thanking the chef, no one ever thanks the
chef. This was a really good breakfast. Last time I had breakfast with the Boy Scouts
of America, I think it was prepared over three tins of Sterno and served in a Dutch oven. It wasn’t good. This was really good. Can I stand over here? The podium gives me the creeps. Like you’re running for office or something. I was laughing as I was eating my sausage
and eggs; people were talking about dedication and commitment. It reminded me of an old story my mother told
me. Dedication and commitment — the perfect
metaphor is the American breakfast. You have the eggs and you have the sausage;
you have the chicken, and you have the pig. In the eggs you have the embodiment of commitment
vis-à-vis the chicken, and in the sausage you have the embodiment of dedication vis-à-vis
the pig. Not all sacrifices are the same. So thank you for breakfast, thank you for
this [holds up the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award]. I have to tell you, it’s really humbling. I used that word a couple of years ago, three
years ago — the Centennial seems like yesterday. It was so gratifying that the Boy Scouts reached
back to me through the years to invite me to speak at the 100th Anniversary of the inception
of this all-important organization. And to learn that this is the 100th anniversary
of the first Eagle and to be here again. I should probably ask [BSA President] Wayne
[Perry] — are there any more centennials coming up? One more? Good. Call me. I know a lot of you were there at AP Hill. When I was there I spoke honestly about the
impact Scouting had on my life. I don’t want to repeat all that right now. Some of it is in the brochure. My message was simple: A Scout is Clean but
not afraid to get dirty. It’s always been my contention. My mission on Dirty Jobs for the last nine
years has been to find people who are willing to roll their sleeves up and get their hands
dirty. Because, whatever the challenge is, the solution
always includes somebody, to some degree, who’s willing to do that very thing. So I was very comfortable on stage, even though
there were 80,000 people out there, because the message of Dirty Jobs is purloined directly
from the DNA of the Boy Scouts of America. I don’t want to repeat too much of it this
morning, because my story isn’t really that unique, like anybody who’s really benefited
from all this organization has to offer. I didn’t go into it with my chest out, marching
in. I had to be dragged by my father, kicking
and screaming. But I wasn’t kicking and screaming. I was so annoyed by the whole prospect, I
sat quietly in the back seat of our station wagon, the one with the fake wood on the side,
you know, as he drove me to Kenwood United Presbyterian Church and told me to get out. And I got out. I was 11 years old. Two years later, things had been put in motion
that would forever change a lot of the decisions I would make over the next 40 to 50 years. That kid that got the scholarship, Elijia,
I think it was, if I got it right, said it’s hard to remember what you were thinking when
you were 11. No kidding Elijia, wait till you’re 50! So I’m standing here trying to remember
all that that evening meant, and it’s sketchy, you know, little snapshots come back. My years of Scouting really were special,
but I did something when I finished that I think a lot of other successful Scouts do
who are able to apply a lot of what they learned. I kind of forgot about it. I don’t mean forgot, like dismissed. I mean I didn’t put it top of mind. What I learned in Scouting had become inculcated
in me. A lot of things that I did over the next few
decades I wasn’t consciously doing. When I wrote the mission statement for Dirty
Jobs, I wasn’t thinking about the Scout Oath or all the tenants of service that you
guys embody. I wrote, “My name’s Mike Rowe, this is
my job: I explore the country looking for people that aren’t afraid to get dirty. Hard working men and women who do the kinds
of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.” You could have taken that right out of the
handbook. That’s service. So the effect that Scouting had on me is not
something I’m going to try to speak to too specifically because it wouldn’t have happened
if my dad really not forced me into it. That’s why it’s very important tonight,
this morning, to have my dad and my mom here. John and Peggy Rowe. Stand up, guys, stand up. Up, Up. Thank you. It kills me that 38 years ago you kicked me
out of a station wagon and now I’m “Distinguished.” So you just never know. So, today, I’ll tell you a story that I
didn’t really think I was going to talk about, but during [NESA President] Glenn’s
[Adams] introduction he mentioned Emmy award-nominated Dirty Jobs, which always makes me laugh. I want to tell you really why I’m here tonight. Obviously my dad put it in motion, but way
leads onto way, as Robert Frost said. If you start to look back and dissect things,
you find some interesting connections that you might not have otherwise seen. In 2008, Dirty Jobs was nominated for an Emmy. We’d been nominated for an Emmy in 2007
and in 2006, 2005, and again in 2009. I didn’t put Dirty Jobs on the air to win
Emmys, and it’s good because I haven’t. But I’m nominated. In 2008, I decide to go to the ceremony. I put on the tux, because, it’s always important,
it’s always nice to be recognized, right? My crew dresses up and I dress up. People from the network, the production company,
we all get together and go to the Shrine [Auditorium] in L.A. We sit down with all the other Hollywood types,
to bask in our self-made monument to glory. We’re sitting there, I know I’m not going
to win, but when you’re sitting there you want to win. You’re thinking, “What would I say?” Two-thousand people in the audience about
like this. Four hours later, the ceremony is still going
on, and I swear to God everybody’s winning something. I’ve never seen anything like it. Emmys for best sound design assistance in
a dark room. Emmys for best assistant make-up techniques
influenced by technology not yet quite invented. Finally get to the end, best reality show
of 2008: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List. Right. I don’t mind not winning, but losing to
Kathy Griffin was a good kick in the errrrr. I’m sitting there, and your mind wanders
when you’re not going to have to get up and say anything. I’m just looking at all the people with
all these trophies and all the statues and all the awards and all the thank-you speeches
and all the this and all the that, and I start thinking. You know, I got a niece. She played basketball. One year her basketball team, they weren’t
very good, right, I think they came in second to last in the whole league, but they got
a trophy. They got a trophy. It didn’t say first, second, or third. It said thanks for participating. But, it was a trophy. I’m sitting there in the Shrine theater
looking at everybody’s trophies and thinking, you know, it’s kinda funny, but it’s kinda
not. Because what we’re doing with trophies is
a little creepy — graduating kids from high school that can’t read. Here’s your diploma; here’s your trophy. They’re doing the same thing in college. They’re doing the same thing in a lot of
places. So this is on my mind. I don’t know what I’m going to do about
it but just kinda noodling on it. I come home, take off my tux, which never
really did fit properly, and sat down at the computer and logged on and go to the Discovery
site to answer questions from viewers. I get this question from a guy named Gary. He says: “Dear Mike, My boy has in the Scouts. He’s about 16; his name is Kelby. It seems like he’s starting to lose interest. “Some of his friends are saying it’s not
cool, and I need you to say an encouraging word or two. I really need him to get his Eagle; it’s
important. That would be great if you would do that — here
publicly, on this site.” I say OK, I’ve done this kind of thing before. I sit down, and I started to type. Then started to … not type. Then I started to think: Why am I annoyed
by this request? It’s a perfectly reasonable request. But I started to realize, maybe it was the
Emmys, maybe it was Kathy Griffin on the D List, maybe it’s was [trails off]. But I just said, you know something? Gary, I’m going to respond directly to your
boy. I said to Kelby, “Look, it’s not for me
to drag you across the finish line. It’s not for your dad to do it either. You’re old enough to know that 99 percent
of people that go for this thing are not going to make it. So if you quit, you’ll be in excellent company. That’s not a bad thing.” I wasn’t trying to be cute with a bunch
of reverse psychology, I was just saying, enough already, you know? What are you going to do if you get it? You going to put it on the wall? You going to carry it around with you? I might have gone a little too far, but I
lost to Kathy Griffin on the D List, OK? I got some pent-up stuff going on. So I hit post to send, and I go to bed. Next morning, I’ve got like 30 replies. Not from Gary or Kelby but from, I don’t
know, maybe some of you. A lot of Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts hopped
in on that and said, “Hey, you know what? Yeah, you’re right. There is a difference between encouragement
and dragging somebody into it.” Three or four days later, there were three
or four-hundred posts. A week later, there were a lot more. Then I got a letter from somebody in Scouting. By the way, I’m here tonight because of
Gary, because of a letter. It’s Scouting that reached back to me and
got me thinking and typing, and cogitating and all this. But in the end you guys reached back again
and said, “Look, we’ve got your response posted on like 500 troop rooms around the
country.” I thought, “That’s weird.” If I knew that, maybe I’d clean up some
of my punctuation. Then I started getting letters from Eagle
Scouts and from people, Moms and Dads who were very proud, asking me to write a congratulatory
letter. I
called my office earlier. We’ve sent out about 9,000 of those things. Postage is pricy, man! But I’m happy to do that, and in that letter
I kinda touched on some of the same ideas. Don’t build these monuments to yourself,
and don’t carry it with you so closely that you can’t use it in a practical way. This is probably not a new message. Most people in here have heard it before,
but what I’m trying to do right now in my head is square it in my head that I’ve got
this shiny medal hanging around my neck. I got this new award, and I’m very proud
of it, but how do I articulate it truly what it means? And as I was going through my eggs and my
sausage thinking about dedication and commitment, I looked across the table and my brother Scott
is here with my Mom and Dad. He’s my younger brother — I’ve got two. They were both in Scouting; neither one of
them made it to Eagle. Hey, you know, you do what you can! My brother Scott was a Star Scout and way
leads onto way, and Scott got involved in some other things and got more interested
in some other things. One night at home, I was probably 21, in college. Scott would have been about 17 maybe. Scott comes in, he had his first job. He was working as a lifeguard over at that
apartment complex in Middle River. We’re sitting down to dinner. There were no sausage and no eggs, I don’t
know what Mom made, a meatloaf casserole or something, super-inventive that night. But, we’re sitting there eating, and Scott
walks in. “How was your day?” Scott gives a “huhinhuh” [grunt], meaningful
dinner conversation. About halfway through dinner, my mother says,
“No really, tell us about your job.” You know he’s working as a lifeguard at
a pool and he says, “Yeah, you know, it was a pretty good day. It was kinda interesting. I saved a guy’s life. Pass the salt over there will ya?” “You what?” “I was up there in my seat, and I looked
down, and this guy was swimming in the deep end on the bottom of the pool, doing this
[swimming motion with arms], but he wasn’t moving and then he wasn’t doing this. “So I dove in, he was a big guy, and I got
him to the surface, and some people helped me and we rolled him out and I did some of
this [chest compression], and water came out of his mouth and he coughed and water came
out of his mouth, then he got up and shook my hand and walked away. “Anyway, this meatloaf is delicious, Mom.” We are like, “Huh?!” So as I’m sitting here with my sausage and
eggs, looking at my brother who’s a Star Scout who saved a guy’s life. You know, Scott doesn’t have a TV show in
180 countries. He doesn’t have one of these [points to
the Distinguished Eagle Scout medal]. The son of a gun saved a guy’s life. So you win. [Applause.] They told me to talk for 10 min. It’s just like the TV show; I’m blowing
it, but let me wrap it up. Here’s the point. John Stewart, thank you for the lift last
night. Mary Sullivan, my business partner and I were
in Arkansas, and John helped us get down here with a little help from private aviation,
which I highly recommend if you can swing it from time to time. Destroys commercial travel forever. We’re sitting there in our leather seats,
chatting, and I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but I remember saying. You know what I remember more than anything,
more than the skill awards, more than the merit badges, more that the court of honor,
and the Order of the Arrow, more than my Eagle award, more than all of it. I remember this section in the old Boys’
Life magazine, “True Stories, Scouts in Action.” Like you know that had so much equity because
unlike events like this where we kinda preach to ourselves, which is OK. We’re really good at building enthusiasm
within the organization. This was different; this was in print. This went out there potentially to people
who didn’t know the Scout Law, or the Oath or the Motto. These were real people doing real things. They weren’t Eagle Scouts — in some cases
they were Tenderfeet (or is it Tenderfoots? I never got that straight). They were Scouts, First Class, Second Class,
Star, Life, whatever it was. You read a story about a kid who runs over
to a tractor, and the farmer’s stuck in it, and the tractor is on fire and he’s
burning. The kid rips his shirt off and jumps on the
guy — cuts the belt off and saves his life, and he’s 16 years old. Why isn’t that kid headline news? Why aren’t we taking that action and shouting
it from a mountaintop? It’s not the award, it’s not the patch,
it’s not the badge, it’s action. When you find Scouts who do a thing, it doesn’t
much matter what their medal says or doesn’t say. It’s their mettle not their medals, right? So finding people in this organization who
walk the walk helping tell those stories, that’s something we’re standing by to
do. That’s something I’ve tried to do in my
own modest way on Dirty Jobs through the lens of dirt. You all do it through the lens of service
and sacrifice and honor and a lot of things that I believe embody Americanism and Scouting. But, in the end, it’s a lot of talk when
you but it next to somebody who dives in, pulls them out and saves a life. It’s an honor to be here, to talk to you,
to enjoy the eggs and the sausage. So good to see my folks and my brother and
all of you. Thanks.
