Masonic Musings from ME!

“It troubles me to no end that whenever I meet a Black man these days, I have to do a little dance about whether he should join our lodge or the Prince Hall one several miles away.” The Senior Steward was a middle-aged man too young to have gone through the agony that was the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. “I just think we need to end this separation of Freemasonry based on the color of a man’s skin right here and now. The whole idea of two separate entities is galling.”

“So which group would you rather disband?” asked The Old Webmaster as he absently leafed through the lodge’s membership register looking for some tidbit of information.

“What do you mean? Neither one, of course!” replied the Senior Steward hastily.

The Old Webmaster turned to face him, leaning on his elbow on the heightened stand which held the book he’d been perusing. “Then how do you propose that we resolve the conundrum? We can’t go back in time and change history so if we’re going to have one body, somebody is going to have to give up their past. Do you want to meld our Grand Lodge into the Prince Hall Grand Lodge or vice versa?”

“I…. Uh…..” And there was nothing more. The Old Webmaster had just said something that he and the others he’d discussed this with the other evening online had not even addressed. They had moaned and griped about some jurisdictions not recognizing Prince Hall, seemingly based on strictly racial lines as shown by a map of the United States wherein the South refused to accept Prince Hall as a regular form of Freemasonry and all of the rest of the country did.

“it’s pretty darn easy to say ‘We’ll recognize them even if they don’t recognize us.’ but that’s pretty hollow in my opinion. And frankly, I wouldn’t be too thrilled if the Rotary or the Lions ‘recognized’ our Grand Lodge as part of their ‘organization’. It’s unwelcome and inappropriate. When people start wringing their hands about this sort of thing, they don’t seem to connect the dots as to their proposals.”

“Yeah, but couldn’t we just say that we think they’re regular Masons and let it go at that?”

“Of course we could.” replied The Old Webmaster. “How magnanimous of us that would be. Telling them what they already know. Seems a bit condescending…. Well, MORE than a bit condescending frankly.”

“But if we could join their lodges and they could join ours….” the Senior Steward’s heart was in the right place but his logic was now being severely tested and he knew it. The Old Webmaster had a penchant for doing just that, he knew.

“You’re forgetting, however, that Prince Hall Masons don’t have dual or plural memberships. They join one lodge and one lodge only. There their friendships are formed and the bonds between them are far greater than amongst our Grand Lodge members. They also have their own ways of doing things. Their meetings are far more religious than ours, often very directly Christian in nature – again, based on their heritage. This would be an anathema to many of our members. Some also have bars to membership so that a potential candidate really has to work to join. It’s FAR different than what we do by stuffing petitions in the hand of even the most causal inquirer. And then there are the ceremonies. I suspect you’ve heard of what improperly goes on in a couple of lodges in our Grand Jurisdiction but you might be even more distressed at some things there. Nevertheless, Prince Hall Grand Lodges WERE regularly formed based on the circumstances of the times and where they are now means – to me at least – that we should always treat them respectfully as Brother Masons. This does NOT, however, mean that we recognize them if they don’t give a fig about it – nor does it mean that we should recognize them if they engage in activities that we would consider highly irregular. A Past Grand Master making a Mason of a man dead for nearly three decades is, for example, one of those things. It will take time – and a refutation of that act, I suspect – in order for the two Grand Jurisdictions in that state to come together.”

The Senior Steward was aghast. Making a dead man a Mason? He just stared….

“There are also cases where a Grand Lodge has issued a ‘blanket’ recognition and yet, only a couple of Prince Hall Grand Lodges have bothered to follow up on it. There are cases where a recognizing Grand Lodge has notified the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of its appointed representative but the notification, made multiple times, has been ignored. The guys who are doing all of this hand-wringing, particularly the ones so vocal on the internet, seem to be blissfully aware of what has transpired either in the past or even currently at their own Grand Lodge.”

“I had no idea….” said the Senior Steward hesitatingly.

“And not everyone does. At least you asked though – while SO many others have failed to do so and have been content to wring their hands like aggrieved, hurt white boys wanting desperately to ‘have a say’ in some sort of righteous movement.”

“You’re old enough to have seen a good chunk of the Civil Rights Movement, aren’t you?” And as he said this, the Senior Steward, for the first time in his memory, watched The Old Webmaster’s crystal blue eyes became cloudy.

There was a long pause.

“Someday I’ll tell you about it.” replied The Old Webmaster as he turned to look out the window at some distant place. The Senior Steward watched him with a growing realization that there was a LOT he needed to think about before he started loudly grousing about this topic again.

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry, Masonic, Prince Hall, recognition, The Old Webmaster

 

“I am SO sick of these monthly chicken barbeques.” the Past Master said as he stared out the kitchen window of the lodge building into the parking lot filled to overflowing with Masons, their ladies, their children and clusters of others from the community all of whom were there nearly as regularly as clockwork each third Saturday evening of the month. “It seems like this is all we do at lodge any more. I think we’ve forgotten our roots and we need to quit this community involvement crap.”

The Old Webmaster continued to dab his shirt with the cloth soaked in tonic water he’d retrieved from the refrigerator. His clothes should really demand hazardous duty pay for the abuse they took when attending these cookouts. Turning, he looked quizzically at his long-time friend.

“I’m confused, Charlie. I see you here at almost every one of these – except when you’re off on your annual fishing trip – and yet you don’t like them?”

“Well, I’ve got to support the lodge so I show up. But all we’re known for now is these chicken barbeques. People see the decal on the back of my car and ask me if I’m part of that group that has the chicken in the parking lot on Saturday nights. They seem to have forgotten that we’re men of dignity and see us only as a way to get cheap food.”

The Old Webmaster smiled as he decided that he’d ruined yet another perfectly good shirt. Ah, but the chicken was SO tasty with that sauce…. He turned to face the Past Master squarely. “I seem to recall that as you were leaving office just four years ago, you were bemoaning the fact that no one knew who the Masons were and that you had been unable to change that despite the several community programs you’d tried.”

“Look, this isn’t about jealousy. I just think we’re becoming known for the wrong thing – and that we should spend the time that’s being used on this event into doing something that would further the education of our members.”

“Surely, my Brother, you don’t think that I’d ever favor anything that would replace Masonic education?” It was a clear statement which was beyond even a whiff of disagreement. “But” the Old Webmaster continued after a pregnant pause “I think you’ve forgotten the history of this program. Just as you were leaving office, young Wayne became a member. You did his initiatory degree, in fact, and you were afraid he was going to be too self conscious to even stand in public because of his weight. He wanted to take part in things but never had the self confidence to step up. Then when Bob was Master he somehow learned that Wayne REALLY enjoyed doing barbeques. Bob encouraged him to do one for the lodge and look at the success it has brought. We’ve only lost money on a couple of nights and then made it up the following month and more besides. We’ve got members of the lodge who hadn’t been here in decades now showing up for meetings after getting together with old friends in the parking lot over a chicken leg. Our younger members are bringing their young children knowing it’s a wholesome family atmosphere and we’ve got vacationers who wouldn’t go to such an event in their own town stopping in here and learning about Freemasonry in the process. I honestly fail to see the problem in all this.”

The Past Master began to look a bit sheepish. “Well, I’m just concerned that we’re becoming known as the guys who do the chicken barbeques.” as his voice trailed off.

“Would I like to have Masonic education programs eight or nine nights a week, Charlie? You bet. But I’m not so sure even I wouldn’t get tired of that before too long. Besides, those aren’t things where you can bring a family. To tell the truth, I’d a darn sight rather be known as the fellows who do the great chicken barbeques and have a great time with their families than those guys who go hide in that dark building over on Outer Maple Street to practice some sort of weird ritual.”

“That’s not what we….” his voice trailed off yet again. “OK. I think I see what you’re getting at.”

The outer door opened suddenly as the inrush of warm early evening air with the sounds of excitement filled the previously noiseless room. They both looked at the door. Standing there was Brother Wayne, now wearing a bib apron with the appellation of ‘Grand Chicken Chef’ complete with Masonic emblem. He spent countless hours each month organizing these events and he arguably should be selling his hot sauce commercially but his face bore more concern that either had seen at any time before.

“Brother Charlie, is everything alright?” His voice once so meek, these days had an air of authority but now it was clearly filled with concern. Wayne had matured SO much – and everyone knew it. He’d even lost some weight despite the presence of this delicious food all the time.

“Well, yes, I’m fine…. Why?” asked the Past Master.

“Several people have come up to me in the past hour asking where you were. I guess I didn’t realize it but you’ve been our primary ‘greeter’ for several months now. That new couple who moved into town on the day we had the barbeque last month just told me you’d been talking with them about the fellow joining our lodge. They felt so welcome thanks to you. Well, I told them you were somewhere and I’d go find you.” He looked towards The old Webmaster who was still dabbing at his shirt intermittently. “Are you tied up in here?” The young man knew that a discussion with The Old Webmaster could get pretty weighty and didn’t want to interrupt if it was an inopportune time.

“Actually, we were just finishing my daily advancement in Masonry, Brother Wayne” he replied with a slight grin. “Now I’ll be right out to put it into practice.” Wayne’s face brightened as he watched the grin turn to a broad smile.

As the ‘Grand Chicken Chef’ exited and the door closed, the Past Master turned to The Old Webmaster and reached out to pat him on the shoulder. “Thanks…. Again…. Sincerely…. for reminding me what we came here to do!” He looked downward and chuckled. “You REALLY should be more careful with that sauce. ” He smiled broadly once again and hastily made his way outside.

There’s a lesson there somewhere, mused The Old Webmaster as he too turned and walked towards the door. There’s plenty of room in Freemasonry for all sorts of interests whether it’s cooking chicken or studying dusty old tomes. As he mused on that for a moment, he wondered if there might be someone in the lodge who’d want to do a fish fry on Friday nights once a month as well. Perhaps he’d better let someone else pursue that, he realized as he reached the door. There have already been enough ruined shirts recently….

Technorati Tags: freemasonry, Masonic, social events, The Old Webmaster

“I just read a blog post last week about how to accomplish things in lodge. It talked about doing things in a way that you won’t get shot down. I guess I didn’t realize there was a lot of that type of thing but I can see that there are a lot of older guys here.” The young man who had just taken his Initiatory Degree two weeks earlier had sought out The Old Webmaster who was sitting by the light of his laptop in the lodge’s upstairs storage room.

“Perhaps you should come in and sit down.” The Old Webmaster said, pointing to one of the several overstuffed chairs from ages past that had been squirreled away in this little retreat.

“I guess I was unaware that the lodge was ’shooting things down’ all that frequently. Perhaps you can enlighten me.” he said as the young man felt the warmth of decades past envelop him sinking further into the depths of the chair.

“Well, I…. I suppose I really don’t know because I haven’t been at a business meeting yet – but this Blogger made it seem pretty apparent that this was a very common thing.”

“I read that blog too – and a couple of thoughts came immediately to mind. Care to hear my take on them?”

“Absolutely!” replied the new initiate. He’d been impressed by this man’s sage advice from the first conversation they’d had. It was like having…. Well, he’d never had an uncle but this would be what it was like, he thought. He thought how pleasant it would be just dropping by to talk with ‘Uncle Bob’ or ‘Uncle Harry’ about life in general – particularly since his family relationship with his father hadn’t been the best.

“My first thought was that the writer – anonymous, as so many of them are and seeming to be afraid of standing behind their claims either as Masons or men – had no conception of Freemasonry whatsoever.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the young man. “He sounded like he knew a lot about what went on – and had been on the losing side of a great many arguments in lodge.”

“You’ve just answered your own question without realizing it.” replied The Old Webmaster. “The Lodge is not a place for arguments about things. The Lodge is not a place where men should have to scheme and engage in trickery or deception in order to get others to support an idea. His whole premise was that we should all be engaging in some sort of Machiavellian plotting – all without any consideration of whether the initial proposal was good, bad, or indifferent.”

“Well, it DID seem awfully contradictory to what I’ve seen so far. The Brothers here have all seemed very friendly and open. I couldn’t imagine that there would be the type of ‘herd-mentality’ that he’d described.” The young man was becoming more pleased than ever that he’d sought advice on this before attempting any of the ploys he’d read about.

“I don’t want to mislead you. In some ways, there is a bit of a ‘herd mentality’ in Freemasonry. If anything, we can be accused of ‘going along to get along’. Thus, if someone DOES speak against an idea, there are likely many reasons for it. Masons, by and large, don’t just decide to not do things out of spite or personal animus. If there does happen to be a lodge member who’s particularly – how shall I say – ‘cranky’ about doing things, the others in the lodge will work to mitigate his objections. You don’t need to go plotting behind others’ backs just so you can have the benefit of bragging about “YOUR” idea getting adopted.” The Old Webmaster watched the young man carefully. Despite the dim lighting in the room, it was clear he understood – so far, at least.

“I don’t want to belabor this too very much but there is a second point to it all.” he said.

“Remember that the ‘old guys’ aren’t always out to get you?” the young man chuckled. “The ones I’ve met so far all seemed to be very eager to hear what I have to say about things. I guess I was just thinking that it might somehow be different during a business meeting.”

“I appreciate that you give us ‘Old Guys’ our due,” said The Old Webmaster, winking and grinning broadly, his cherubic face alight, “but that wasn’t the real point I wanted to make. I saw a second, similarly important flaw. The blog’s author seemed to think that after he had completed his lineup of support through whatever means, he should just spring things during the business meeting. It seemed to me that this blogger probably never held a position of leadership in a lodge or in any other organization. He didn’t seem to understand that the leader of ANY group should, just out of simple courtesy, be consulted first on any plan or project to be proposed. In our case, it’s the Master. He’s the guy who’s responsible for the Lodge and all the programs that it does during his term. He’ll get the blame if something falls flat, regardless of who comes up with the idea. He’s also the one that has, hopefully, planned the agenda items for the meeting, including the time allotted to various items on the agenda. To get blindsided with some proposal for something that requires a lengthy discussion and a lot of thinking isn’t really what a Master wants to have hit him as he’s moving along with the items he’s already prepared. It’s an ambush, so to speak, and it’s sure not very Masonic as far as I can see. So I’d suggest that the anonymous blogger not only has a very poor understanding of Freemasonry but also of simple, basic meeting management. Blindsiding another Mason in order to get your own way…. I dunno. It’s sure not what I consider Masonic. When you become Master of this Lodge, you might even remember this discussion and then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”

The Old Webmaster leaned back and his chair squeaked as it was accustomed to doing. He looked at the young man who was just beaming with the thought of becoming Master. ‘Time well spent.’ The Old Webmaster mused.

Technorati Tags: Freemasons, freemasonry, lodge, leadership, The Old Webmaster

“Did a bunch of you guys go to a meeting together last Saturday? I saw some cars I recognized in the parking lot near the old railroad tracks around noon.” They were standing outside the lodge room door just a few minutes prior to the start of the meeting and the questioner was a member who always wanted to know what others were doing.

“A couple of us were out Geocaching.” replied The Old Webmaster. “Care to join us next time?”

“Geo – what?”

“Geocaching. It involves finding something that someone else has left in a particularly interesting place. You use a GPS to locate it and it’s the fun of the hunt, the places that you get to see that you might not have even known about, and the exercise in the activity. Last Saturday was our first ‘outing’. There were three families who made the trek down the old railroad tracks by that parking lot and were directed to a really outstanding waterfall which none of us even realized was there.”

“You learned about this on the web, I’ll bet….” There was a broad smile on the Mason’s face. He knew The Old Webmaster well.

“Of course. Actually, there’s a Masonic tie in all of this as well. There’s a basic web site on the whole Geocaching process. It’s being done around the world and no matter where you travel, you can download information to help you find these incredible places – along with guidance as to where to park, what to look for, the difficulty involved, etc. It’s like a hide-and-go-seek game but really engaging because of the great locations and number of people involved. What I found fascinating, though, is another facet of this: waymarking.”

Looking over his glasses with his head tipped down, his Lodge Brother could tell that The Old Webmaster was clearly smitten with this – whatever. “The meeting’s going to start soon. Don’t leave me hanging.”

“Well….” The Old Webmaster began “…it’s really simple. You take your GPS to a particular location and you snap a digital photo of it at that location – to prove the coordinates. Then you take a picture of the particular ‘thing’ and log it onto the waymarking website so others can go in search of it – and have fun in the process. It’s not that you couldn’t find it on your own, it’s just that someone might see it and decide they’d like to visit in person rather than just looking at a picture. The website where these are logged has all sorts of categories: abandoned railroad stations, waterfalls, and – since I always love a Masonic connection – Masonic Temples!”

“You’re KIDDING!”

The Old Webmaster just smiled and then the meeting was about to begin. As they entered the Lodge Hall and took their seats, he knew he’d spend much of his time after this meeting explaining Geocaching. With a little bit of luck, this might become yet another way to get members and their families involved! Sharing brotherhood and having fun. Freemasonry really was SO much….

Technorati Tags: geocaching, waymarking, Freemasons, freemasonry, Masonic Temples, The Old Webmaster