Doug Clark: This Eagle Scout project rocks

No bad news today.

After a week of writing about the disgraceful Olsen verdict, I went looking for a topic to refresh my faith in humanity.

I found it in an e-mail that was sent to the newspaper.

“My name is Carson Grubb,” it read. “And I am a Boy Scout with Troop 117. Over the past several months I have been working on my Eagle Project.

“For my project I wrote a rock opera …”

A rock opera?

Scouting has changed a great deal since I was a kid. Back then I think to get an Eagle you had to go into the forest with only a jackknife and survive for a month eating nothing but critters.

I could be completely wrong about that. My knowledge of Scouting is rather limited. I barely made it past Tenderfoot before my Scoutmaster booted me out for being disruptive.

Some things never change, huh?

But this kid sounded intriguing.

So on Thursday night I drove down to Spokane’s Libby Center to watch the eighth-grade drama class of the Odyssey Gifted Program perform Carson’s rock opera, “The Time Traveller.”

And you know what?

It was worth skipping the second half of the Zags game.

The group delivered Carson’s original music with charming sincerity and passion.

Carson, by the way, is 16. He’s a junior at St. George’s School and a former Odyssey student.

His “Time Traveller” is filled with catchy, well-constructed songs. The melodies and chord progressions have a retro ’60s vibe that made me think of bands like the Moody Blues and Pink Floyd. Carson said he wrote his opera over six weeks last fall.

The rock opera tells the story of a young man who has lost faith in the world because of the constant suffering he sees. He builds a time machine so he can escape to a kinder and gentler age, only to find that suffering is an inescapable part of the human condition.

In the end, the protagonist returns to his own time with a new goal: to better the lives of those around him.

Well, of course he does. What else would you expect from a Boy Scout?

The evening’s most pleasant surprise for me was the musicianship exhibited by Carson and his younger brother, Isaac, who is 14 and an Odyssey student.

Carson is a fine guitarist. Isaac is a deft pianist. You can tell the two have spent a lot of time playing together.

Their steady playing held it all the together.

“This rock opera is a testament to our dedication to music,” Carson told me later during an interview.

Carson said he plays with Isaac in a band called The Cause. He wants to study music in college and keep on playing rock ‘n’ roll.

My friend Mike Cantlon deserves a lot of the credit for making this evening a reality.

Cantlon is a teacher for the Odyssey program. He said Carson approached him last year to see if he could have the drama class perform his music.

Cantlon admitted that he was a bit nervous. But after reading the lyrics and talking to Carson, Cantlon was sold.

Thursday’s performance proved he made the right decision.

“To let something like this go by would be just horrible,” said Cantlon, calling Carson “an amazing young man.”

We also have to credit Carson’s Scout leaders for being open-minded.

I don’t know if anyone keeps track of such things, but I’m betting this is the first time a rock opera was used as an Eagle project.

“I love operas,” Carson said. “I think they’re the pinnacle of artistic achievement.”

An opera-loving, teenage-rocking Boy Scout.

Things aren’t so grim in Spokane, after all.