Sometimes, you have to do things that are good for the soul.

That’s what I did Tuesday night at Belmont Elementary School. For the second straight year I was asked to judge Cub Scout Pack 411’s Cake Bake, where the scouts, with help from the parents, bake or make confectionary delights with all edible parts.

Browsing the creations.

This was good therapy for me. As many of my friends know, October wasn’t a kind month and then with the stress of covering a high profile police officer shooting and fatal wreck, you need something simple, civic minded and stress free to make you appreciate life’s simplicities. This was the medicine I needed.

Judging a cake baking and decorating contest is not as simple as it sounds. We didn’t taste, well I did sample a flame from a campfire to make sure it was edible and I’m sure my fellow judges thought I was crazy, but we studied each design closely and deliberated the merits of each one.

It was not easy, but let me tell you the mood was relaxed and pressure free, doing something worthwhile for the parents and, especially, the Cub Scouts.

The grand prize winner.

I sometimes think these simple things are lost in a world which speeds around us and, as a highly cynical, jaded journalist, it would be easy to discard an event like this as milquetoast.

Despite my cynicism, despite my sometimes jaded outlook after covering crime upon crime, revolving door upon revolving door criminal, I was able to see something good and decent.

I was able to see scouts learning to bond with their parents or guardians, molding these young people to not follow the paths that will lead them to be a mugshot on rrspin.com or any other news outlet.

I was able to see boys, who you would think would want to do anything but bake a cake, enjoying themselves, participating in their pack meeting as we walked around, salivating at their creations — creations that had to follow themes of scouting, sports, patriotism or holidays.

We saw several of each and were impressed with the ingenuity. There were pretzels for trees, marshmallow roofs, cookies for buttons and graham cracker shingles.

Snowman cake.

There were smiling faces from the winners and those who didn’t win applauded happily for the ones who did.

I’m not making this up. I saw this. This isn’t some Pollyanna, bubbly column, it is truth, truth in the best degree you can see it, truth you can separate from the bad news we in the press are so vilified for covering.

“It was a whole family experience,” said Cub Scout C.J. Rogers, who commandeered my camera for a while. “Even the dog helped. He was licking the icing from the side.”

You don’t script comments like that, you don’t goad people for comments like that. That is truth from the innocent, truth from those who believe in good and it makes me smile that there are good people in this world. It makes me smile there are people who don’t treat others like dirt, who aren’t on the career track of jail and prison.

As I said on the rrspin.com Facebook page, I considered it an honor to be asked and I hope I get asked again next year — Lance Martin.

Lance Martin is editor and publisher of rrspin.com