“So what do you think? Is Freemasonry dying or not?” It had been a long evening: three new candidates had received their initiatory degree, there had been an outstanding supper prepared by the Junior Warden and his crew, and there was an extended period after the meeting when everyone was invited to stay to discuss some very preliminary thoughts for a new lodge building. It was now fast approaching midnight as both the Master and the Lodge Webmaster were packing up things they’d left in the upstairs storage room upon their arrival several hours earlier.
The Old Webmaster turned to see a smile on the face of the Master. “When I read about this organization on some blogs, I get that very distinct impression.” He chuckled.
“Apparently no one has told the guys in our lodge or coming to join our lodge that it is, Worshipful.” The Old Webmaster responded with equal jocularity enhanced by a great evening of friendship and fellowship. “I really do believe that in life you find what you look for. If you want to see darkness and doom at every turn, then by golly you’re going to find it. If, on the other hand, you recognize that some things in our organization need tweaking – or outright repair – but that overall we’ve done pretty well for the past three hundred years, then I think you’re going to have a positive situation just as we have here.”
“You’ve been consistently responsible for setting that tone, my friend. I think the lodge owes you a real debt of gratitude for keeping them looking forward instead of back.”
“It must be the late hour that’s affected your thinking!” replied The Old Webmaster with a broad grin. “You hadn’t yet joined when I first came to town, but there were several in this lodge who were much more happy to moan and gripe than to move forward. There were a couple of the oldest members who took the approach that any change was heresy and there were a couple of the youngest guys who were convinced that the lodge was going to hell in a hand basket and weren’t reticent about proclaiming that to the rooftops – while never lifting a finger to make change, except to do things sure to antagonize others.”
“I…. I never realized that our lodge was so divided.” The Master had stopped still and was staring as The Old Webmaster set his laptop computer into its case. “How did the turnaround happen? When I petitioned, everyone seemed to be pretty much on the same page….”
The Old Webmaster looked past him into the shadows of the room as if seeing reminders of a past long forgotten. “It was a time of frank discussions, I guess. I told a couple of the old fellows that I’d wanted to join a lodge that had a future and it seemed to me that this one had. Somehow that seemed to resonate with all but one member. He went off in a huff but fortunately he came back barely a year later when others told him of the things that were starting to happen. If I told you who it was, you’d be shocked since he’s now one of the most active members in the lodge. I also told a couple of the loudest mouthed guys that frankly I thought their behavior was boorish; that I’d never seen such things in Freemasonry before, and that if I was Master – which I told them I was looking forward to doing – they would find this a very unwelcome place with such attitudes. In short, if they didn’t like this so much, to not let the door hit them in the butt on the way out! It was, in the vernacular, some ‘tough love’.”
The Master continued to stare. Since his arrival, harmony had been a watchword for all their doings and he’d never heard The Old Webmaster use a descriptor like that before. “So I’m confused here…. You’re a person who never seems to interfere. As a new member, what authority….”
“MORAL authority!” The Old Webmaster replied without waiting for the sentence to finish. “Freemasonry has been around a long time and I’d enjoyed my time in it up to that point. I wasn’t about to let a bunch of nay-sayers take that away from me and I wasn’t about to buy into their negativism, regardless of the origin. Apparently there were quite a few members of the lodge who’d been waiting for ‘the right moment’ to step up and move things forward. I guess my big mouth was what touched it off.” He chuckled as he wrapped cords, stuffing them into various pockets of his case.
“Quite a chance you took though, don’t you think? You could have irrevocably split the lodge….”
The Old Webmaster just smiled. “No, I wasn’t doing anything but the RIGHT thing. I wasn’t telling anyone HOW to run the lodge or what we needed to be doing for meetings, activities, or whatever. I was saying, simply, to cut out all the darn negativity and spend their effort on positive things. Nothing radical about it at all. Beyond that, I had a reservoir of experience behind me. One member even called the Master of my home lodge to ‘check me out’. Apparently he was left thinking I was the new Messiah! I thought it was pretty comical. Unlike many of those who flap their jaws – or keyboards – about their many solutions to what they perceive as wrong about Freemasonry, I simply encouraged people to either lead, follow or get out of the way. Pretty simple military metaphor. The older guys understood it immediately and nearly all of the younger guys caught on right off. Negativism begets negativism but conversely, when you’re positive and forward-looking, you’re going to find potential and opportunity. I told the younger ones who were flapping their jaws the hardest that, like the Mark Twain story about his father’s intelligence, they’d soon discover what was good and right about the older ones and that they should take advantage of the opportunity they had here to share generational differences which was nowhere else available to them. I told the older guys that these were the young pups who were going to help them in their dotage and they’d better pay heed to making friendships now or they’d be alone and lonely at the end. Almost everybody seemed to get it.”
His voice dropped appreciably and the darkness of the night seemed to fill the room. “I started a forest fire it seems. One of significant proportions. Such fires, though, don’t destroy the ecosystem as you well know. Instead they clear away the dead brush and allow so many other things to grow and flourish. You’ve spent time as a hunter and a Guide; you understand the process….”
“It sounds to me as if you judiciously used a bushwhacker rather than starting a forest fire….” said the Master, now closing his briefcase and making ready to leave.
“Well, whichever: but we all started keeping our eyes on the prize from that point forward. When I’m long gone, I hope you’ll make sure that continues.” The Old Webmaster reached out and patted the Master on the back. “That was one heck of an evening tonight. THANK YOU for all your work for Freemasonry.”
“And thank YOU, my Brother, for everything you do as well.”
With smiles and a feeling of friendship, they descended to the lower floor, locked the door, and climbed into their respective vehicles to head home. Not another word was spoken between them that evening. None were necessary.
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