It is nice to be Recognized.

Recently I took my family on vacation to visit my parents and soak in some warm weather in Florida.  It is a pleasure to visit, because I get to not only visit with family but I also get to visit with the brethren that go to lodge and often have coffee with my dad.  Cloyd is the secretary of Winterhaven Lodge and originally from Washburn, and Farmer Lloyd who is a retired corn farmer from Illinois and then there is Paul Harris from Fort Kent lodge all I consider my friends.  However I experienced something on this vacation that has left me thinking. 

This year for the first time we visited Disney while down in the sunshine state.  It was most rewarding to me to see my children's reactions to the different beloved characters that they encountered.  I however had another experience that was almost as rewarding to me.  Throughout my day I met brethren who greeted me with brotherly affection, men who I had never met before nor had my father introduced me too.

You see I was wearing my Caribou Lodge Baseball cap with the Square and Compass prominently displayed on the front.   At first I was unaware of the significance of it or the impact that it had on those discrete masons around me.  The first brother to approach me was from Nova Scotia a retired gentleman who was accompanying his son and family through the labyrinth of roped off lines of people waiting to finally reach a three minute ride that the children so desired.  We had a nice conversation, his son was also a Mason and we discussed our district's international night with New Brunswick and the lodge he had adopted in Florida.  Later it was a brother from Alabama who presented to me a certain sign in a discrete manner identifying himself and again we had a nice talk.  Throughout the day I met men from Michigan, New York, Indiana, and Illinois all masons and all happy to share some stories and friendship.

The point I am trying to make is that our Fraternity is vast and when you travel if you are recognized as a mason, brethren will seek you out to say hi.  It however does not end there, for newer masons (myself included) there are so many men that belong to our organization who we are not aware of.  Even if you travel to other lodges you are only meeting those who regularly attend.  It is eyeopening to realize the number of men who will happily call you brother if they are aware.

I was pleased to provide my family with the memories of Disney but my memories are a little different because of Masonry and my hat.