This is a poem that spoke to me and if you give it some consideration I think it just might mean something to you too.
"An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."
by Will Allen Dromgoole
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Am I the problem, or part of the solution ?
I found this article online from the Grand Lodge of Arizona and thought I would share because it is worth thinking about.
From MWGM Lewis R. Brent, GL Arizona
Too much blood, sweat, and tears has been shed by generations of Brothers, Sons, Fathers, and friends to let our fraternity slide into infamy. The change begins with leadership and commitment at all levels (Grand Lodge to Subordinate Lodge, Officers to members of the craft).
To our Worshipful Masters and Wardens I say confidence and concerted efforts are the core elements of leadership that must be exercised, or we wind up with complacency and corruption. By corruption I do not mean illegality as much as the corruption of the ideals inculcated in our Masonic Principles, Tenets, Customs, and Lectures. What is happening in our lodges is that there are not enough Masonic teachings, community relations, or brotherhood being practiced. We are constantly begging members to assume leadership roles, support fund raising activities, and/or participate in approved projects. This should not be!
The Laws and Customs of Masonry gives Worshipful Masters and Lodge officers awesome powers and prerogatives over the membership, however it is not a dictatorship. The brethren maintain control by using their voice through the Ballot Box to put in office those they perceive as capable to lead; but more importantly they select/elect brethren they are willing to follow. It does no one any good to put individuals in office we will not support. This system of “checks and balances” has worked from time immemorial, and will work now if properly applied.
We must aspire to inspire those in our ranks to give an honest effort towards sustaining our organization, or we will expire as a fraternity, losing a very important element of our society that has had a definite impact on the fabric of ours and the community’s lifestyles…
I will close with the following reminder!
TEN WAYS TO KILL A FRATERNITY –
1. Always have something else to do when Lodge meeting time comes
2. If you attend a meeting, be sure to find fault with officers and fellow members
3. Refuse to hold office, as it is easier to criticize than to be criticized
4. Get sore if you are not put in charge or on a committee
5. If put on a committee, don’t do the job
6. If the Worshipful Master ask for opinions, keep silent but later tell others what should have been done
7. When a few brothers roll up their sleeves to help things work smoothly, disparage it be calling it a CLIQUE running the Lodge.
8. Stick to telling what you have done in the past for the Lodge, and never look to the future
9. Delay paying dues and assessments as long as possible, or don’t pay dues or support Lodge activities at all
10. Never bother about getting new members, let others do it
If you see any of these in yourself remember, let PRUDENCE direct you, TEMPERANCE chasten you, FORTITUDE support you, and JUSTICE be the guide in all your actions.
Are you the problem, or part of the solution???????
From MWGM Lewis R. Brent, GL Arizona
Too much blood, sweat, and tears has been shed by generations of Brothers, Sons, Fathers, and friends to let our fraternity slide into infamy. The change begins with leadership and commitment at all levels (Grand Lodge to Subordinate Lodge, Officers to members of the craft).
To our Worshipful Masters and Wardens I say confidence and concerted efforts are the core elements of leadership that must be exercised, or we wind up with complacency and corruption. By corruption I do not mean illegality as much as the corruption of the ideals inculcated in our Masonic Principles, Tenets, Customs, and Lectures. What is happening in our lodges is that there are not enough Masonic teachings, community relations, or brotherhood being practiced. We are constantly begging members to assume leadership roles, support fund raising activities, and/or participate in approved projects. This should not be!
The Laws and Customs of Masonry gives Worshipful Masters and Lodge officers awesome powers and prerogatives over the membership, however it is not a dictatorship. The brethren maintain control by using their voice through the Ballot Box to put in office those they perceive as capable to lead; but more importantly they select/elect brethren they are willing to follow. It does no one any good to put individuals in office we will not support. This system of “checks and balances” has worked from time immemorial, and will work now if properly applied.
We must aspire to inspire those in our ranks to give an honest effort towards sustaining our organization, or we will expire as a fraternity, losing a very important element of our society that has had a definite impact on the fabric of ours and the community’s lifestyles…
I will close with the following reminder!
TEN WAYS TO KILL A FRATERNITY –
1. Always have something else to do when Lodge meeting time comes
2. If you attend a meeting, be sure to find fault with officers and fellow members
3. Refuse to hold office, as it is easier to criticize than to be criticized
4. Get sore if you are not put in charge or on a committee
5. If put on a committee, don’t do the job
6. If the Worshipful Master ask for opinions, keep silent but later tell others what should have been done
7. When a few brothers roll up their sleeves to help things work smoothly, disparage it be calling it a CLIQUE running the Lodge.
8. Stick to telling what you have done in the past for the Lodge, and never look to the future
9. Delay paying dues and assessments as long as possible, or don’t pay dues or support Lodge activities at all
10. Never bother about getting new members, let others do it
If you see any of these in yourself remember, let PRUDENCE direct you, TEMPERANCE chasten you, FORTITUDE support you, and JUSTICE be the guide in all your actions.
Are you the problem, or part of the solution???????
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Rock & Roll and Freemasonry
After our experiences with AC/DC and Ritual, I thought this show was very appropriate to share. This is a talk radio show from WGBH in Boston.
The article mentioned in this show that appeared in the Boston Phoenix entitled "How the Boston rock scene grew up, got real jobs, and became — Freemasons?"
Can be viewed at: http://thephoenix.com/boston/life/115823-how-the-boston-rock-scene-grew-up-got-real-jobs-/#ixzz1G2woTgBc
The article mentioned in this show that appeared in the Boston Phoenix entitled "How the Boston rock scene grew up, got real jobs, and became — Freemasons?"
Can be viewed at: http://thephoenix.com/boston/life/115823-how-the-boston-rock-scene-grew-up-got-real-jobs-/#ixzz1G2woTgBc
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Learning from your Cipher
In 2011 Caribou lodge finds itself with a very good problem to have. We have lots of work to do, with our five EAs, two applications to ballot and at least one application to read for the first time at the March Stated Meeting. This means lots of cipher work and lots of mentoring.
When it comes to learning ritual, I have been told that "Once you can read it in the cipher then you have it licked" and sure enough once I can read it in the cipher, I do almost have it learned. But getting to the point that I can read it can be a daunting task.
I have often thought that it would be nice to have the entire ritual written out within the lodge, as some States do. But then I am happy that we at least have ciphers to work with unlike other states. So I struggle with my cipher calling on brethren to assist with those pesky words, or giving a call to Marshal White the District Ritual Instructor who can look it up in his "book" if I am really stuck.
Well, I follow several blogs that are focused on Masonry and one of them brought my attention to an article in the BBC World News. No the article didn't talk about masonry directly but it did speak to the challenges of learning from a code or our ciphers. According to a study conducted at Princeton University and published in the International Journal of Cognition, using the code in our cipher may be more beneficial than each of us having our own "book" to use.
From the BBC News Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666
Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually recalled 14% more.
They believe that presenting information in a way that is hard to digest means a person has to concentrate more, and this leads to “deeper processing” and then “better retrieval” afterwards.
It is an example of the positive effects of what scientists call “disfluency”.
“Disfluency is just a subjective feeling of difficulty associated with any mental task,” explained psychology Prof Daniel Oppenheimer, one of the co-authors of the study.
“So if something is hard to see or hear, it feels disfluent… We’d found that disfluency led people to think harder about things. [...]
Students given the harder-to-read materials scored higher in their classroom assessments than those in the control group. This was the case across a range of subjects – from English, to Physics to History.
The Blog Address: http://masonictao.com/
I thought you might find this interesting and it might entice you to dig deep and learn a new lecture just for the fun of it.
When it comes to learning ritual, I have been told that "Once you can read it in the cipher then you have it licked" and sure enough once I can read it in the cipher, I do almost have it learned. But getting to the point that I can read it can be a daunting task.
I have often thought that it would be nice to have the entire ritual written out within the lodge, as some States do. But then I am happy that we at least have ciphers to work with unlike other states. So I struggle with my cipher calling on brethren to assist with those pesky words, or giving a call to Marshal White the District Ritual Instructor who can look it up in his "book" if I am really stuck.
Well, I follow several blogs that are focused on Masonry and one of them brought my attention to an article in the BBC World News. No the article didn't talk about masonry directly but it did speak to the challenges of learning from a code or our ciphers. According to a study conducted at Princeton University and published in the International Journal of Cognition, using the code in our cipher may be more beneficial than each of us having our own "book" to use.
From the BBC News Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666
Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually recalled 14% more.
They believe that presenting information in a way that is hard to digest means a person has to concentrate more, and this leads to “deeper processing” and then “better retrieval” afterwards.
It is an example of the positive effects of what scientists call “disfluency”.
“Disfluency is just a subjective feeling of difficulty associated with any mental task,” explained psychology Prof Daniel Oppenheimer, one of the co-authors of the study.
“So if something is hard to see or hear, it feels disfluent… We’d found that disfluency led people to think harder about things. [...]
Students given the harder-to-read materials scored higher in their classroom assessments than those in the control group. This was the case across a range of subjects – from English, to Physics to History.
The Blog Address: http://masonictao.com/
I thought you might find this interesting and it might entice you to dig deep and learn a new lecture just for the fun of it.
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