“I heard that the Grand Lodge is considering the institution of a ‘Young Masons’ Lodge. I think if there’d been one of those when I joined, it would have been just great!” The Junior Steward was, by anyone’s definition, an ‘eager beaver’. He quickly learned ritual for several parts and was always willing to take on any task.
“I heard some mention of that the other day” replied The Old Webmaster “but I didn’t hear any of the details.”
“I’m not really sure but from what I’d heard, it would be limited to guys under 35 and they’d be doing things that younger guys want to do.”
“So what DO ‘younger guys’ want to do?” The question was asked easily and was not out of character for the man who was always happy to chat with Masons young and old.
“Well, I’d like to be able to go out maybe once a week to a sports bar with the lodge’s members. I think it’d be great if we could go to some sports event every Saturday and maybe go out to someplace where we could check out the action on Friday and Saturday nights. Heck, there are LOTS of things we could do together.” The Junior Steward was obviously smitten with this idea.
“I guess I’m confused.” said The Old Webmaster slowly. “I thought those were the types of things that one did with their friends.”
“Well, the guys in this lodge WOULD be my friends. Don’t get me wrong: I really like the Brothers here and a couple of the oldest members have been just like a Grandfather to me. It’s been just great. But I’m thinking that this could be so much better.”
“So having a couple of grandfathers isn’t as important as partying on the weekend, huh?” The Old Webmaster had a wry smile on his face. “And I was also wondering what the wives of some of your new lodge members would think of their partying with you every weekend.”
“Well, that wasn’t what I meant. If they didn’t want to go….” The Junior Steward knew that The Old Webmaster had a way of finding flaws in an idea which others hadn’t seen. He wasn’t going to let that happen here. “And besides,” he continued “the married guys could just attend the monthly meeting and let it go at that.”
“Oh. So they would be kind of a second class of members. There’d be the ones who wanted to do all sorts of ‘manly’ things while those who were stupid enough to get married would get left behind. And I presume there’d be some age limit to membership, right?”
“Well, yes. 40 was discussed but 35 is going to be the limit I think. At that point, guys would have other interests.” The subject had shifted but the young man wasn’t quite sure how much ground he’d lost so far.
The Old Webmaster nodded. “Interesting. Sounds to me a lot like the concept involved with the Jaycees – the Junior Chamber of Commerce younger folks. They’ve got an 18-41 age limit. For an organization focused on the community, it might not be so terrible to leave when you reach that magical age but in Freemasonry where so much of our membership experience involves our own personal growth and the bonds of friendship made over nights together at lodge events, it seems pretty odd we’d want to toss a felow out and force him to affiliate with another lodge with men he may not have even met before. Particularly at a time in his life when stability and long-term friendships might be pretty crucial…. I suspect a large group might just leave Masonry at that point but no one really knows…. I guess I’m having problems seeing the up-side of this.”
“You know, there are a lot of young guys who’d be much more attracted to the organization if they were joining a group with people of their own age….”
The Old Webmaster looked at him and smiled gently. “So the idea here would be to pretend that Freemasonry doesn’t have old guys like me around and to encourage new members to think they’re special through segregation?”
“Well, no…. We’re not segregating in that we’re a Masonic lodge too and….”
Uncharacteristically, The Old Webmaster interrupted – but with his gentle demeanor, it was hard to take umbrage in any way. “You still haven’t explained how a bunch of young, single guys are going to be in complete synchronicity with a bunch of married guys in various stages of their life, including young families. What really concerns me though is that a man might spend 20 years with a lodge like this, become a Past Master and be well-loved and respected, and then get kicked out because they’d hit a magical calendar date in their life – or do we make exceptions at that point so it’s the ‘young Masons and the ones who used to be Lodge’?…..”
At that moment, the Junior Warden appeared. “If I’m not interrupting anything too very important, I could use some help down in the kitchen. Brother Steward: your duties call….” All of them smiled broadly. Sometimes work did get in the way of these great conversations!
“I’ll lend a hand as well.” said The Old Webmaster. “I think one of the best parts of Freemasonry is that us old guys get to hang out with you youngsters….” He winked at the Junior Steward and smiled broadly.
The Junior Warden gave a half-smile as well, not quite understanding what was being said. He just shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and headed off. Apparently he’d missed something pretty interesting….
As the evening progressed, The Old Webmaster noted that the Junior Steward was spending a LOT of time talking with the most senior members of the lodge, something that hadn’t happened much before. As they were leaving the building for the evening, the young man patted The Old Webmaster on the arm: “Funny how you can sometimes miss the obvious, isn’t it?” he said. The Old Webmaster nodded sagely. “Maybe that’s why you should keep us old guys around.” he replied – and patted his Masonic Brother on the back in return, his face beaming in a huge grin.
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