Not every choice a person makes can be labeled good or bad, or at least not right away.

As I approached my 9th birthday more than four decades ago, my mother and father informed me they’d be happy to let me participate in Little League Baseball or the Cub Scouts, but not both. They probably reasoned that their son would be best served by pouring all of his youthful efforts into a single activity, rather than committing himself to a pair of them and not fully embracing either.

While considering my two options it occurred to me that Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron got their pictures on the bubble-gum cards my friends and I avidly collected not for earning merit badges, but for playing Major League Baseball. In addition, they and all their colleagues got to wear cool and unique hats and uniforms. Mays and his fellow Giants dressed in white shirts trimmed in orange and black, Mantle and his pals on the Yankees were decked out in pinstripes. Aaron and his co-workers with the Braves also wore sharp-looking duds, although the “M” on their caps changed to an “A” in 1966 when their team’s decision-makers determined their ball club might attract more paying customers in Atlanta than they had in Milwaukee. They arrived in Milwaukee 13 years earlier after having fled what their then-owners considered an unsatisfactory situation in Boston ”“ their original home.

The Cub Scouts, on the other hand, were all required to wear the same dorky outfit, one that consisted of blue pants, a blue shirt, a blue beanie with yellow piping, and a yellow handkerchief/bandanna which took a trained magician to properly secure around one’s neck. Plus you had to actually buy the scout suit, while the cool Little League uniforms sported by all the older kids I looked up to merely had to be borrowed. Not only that, the baseball hats, not to mention the lettering on the shirts, came in different colors; the Hawks wore blue, the Lions navy, the Bears maroon, and the Rams red.

For reasons, which included but were not limited to apparel, I considered the choice of baseball versus scouting for a full nanosecond before practically shouting at my parents that I’d go the bat-and-ball route. At the time, it seemed like the equivalent of choosing filet mignon over liver soaked in castor oil. And for decades, I never looked back.

Immersing myself in baseball helped me to improve my modest athletic abilities, hone my social skills and boost my self-esteem. Ultimately, it provided me with an enjoyable way to make a modest living for nearly 15 years of my adult life, albeit as a coach and/or radio announcer rather than as a player.

But late last year it occurred to me that I may have been a bit hasty in dismissing the possibility of participating in scouting so quickly. For one thing, I can’t tie any knot more complicated than the one required to keep my sneakers attached to my feet. And were I ever to get lost in the woods, I’d be a goner; I don’t know which side of the tree moss grows on, let alone how to pitch a tent or rub two sticks together vigorously enough to start a fire.

On the theory that late is better than never, I’ve made a sincere effort to become more trustworthy, courteous, helpful, loyal and kind, all of which are assets that according to the official Boy Scouts of America website can be acquired through active involvement with their organization. Probably the most important aspect of scouting I’ve adopted, albeit belatedly, is their famous motto, “Be prepared.”

The advantage of living by this philosophy was borne out this past weekend. My wife went out to do what she thought would be some leisurely last-minute holiday shopping, but her experience ended up being anything but relaxing. Negotiating the parking lot was like competing in a demolition derby. Many of the shoppers behaved like wild animals, and she swore she waited in the checkout line long enough to actually see the man in front of her grow a five o’clock shadow.

But I no longer worry about experiencing the sort of horrors she described because, like the Scouts, I am always prepared. I haven’t gone near the mall this year; because I haven’t found the need. I did all my gift-buying ahead of time.

And thanks to my new talent for thinking ahead the many avid readers in my family are going to be thrilled this coming Sunday morning. I can hardly wait to see the delighted looks on their faces when they unwrap the gift cards their always-prepared husband/father purchased for everyone at Borders last January.

— Andy Young, a high school English teacher in York County, is prepared to enjoy a few good books during the holidays, all of which he’s borrowed from his local library.