The Tao of Masonry

For several years now I’ve gone to Grand Lodge sessions, and each time I’m amazed that a majority of the people attending get there just a few minutes early, and then leave as soon as the gavel bangs the meeting closed. Okay, I’ve never been much of a fan of sitting in meetings, especially meetings in which other people do the talking. In fact, I can imagine that for a lot of people, Grand Lodge sounds like this:

“Blah blah blah… declare the session open … blah blah blah… welcome to the two hundred and mumblety mumbleth annual… blah blah blah… welcome the Past Grand … blah blah blah… presentation by Masonicare… blah blah blah… elections for the next year… blah blah blah… the proposed budget includes … blah blah blah… lack of membership… blah blah blah… new programs will include… blah blah blah… show our appreciation to … blah blah blah… results of the voting… blah blah blah… congratulations to … blah blah blah… please inform the Grand Tyler… blah blah blah… Thank you all for coming.”  BANG

Even though it ended a half hour earlier than anyone had expected, some people zoomed out of there so quickly that I thought we were serving free donuts in the lobby.

I don’t get that. For me, the best part about Grand Lodge is the hour before and the hour after the actual meeting; this is the time to get together with people that you don’t normally see every month, to renew old acquaintances, and to hear about what’s happening in other lodges and in other parts of the state. There are not a lot of ways that the Grand Lodge can communicate ideas about its various programs until after they are instituted – which, to my way of thinking – is usually to late. People on various committees who talk about new ideas with the Craft are in a position to get input. The flip side, of course, is that the Craft – that’s you and me – manages to have some input at the planning stage. And, this is the opportunity to meet those junior Grand Lodge officers who are going to be leading the Craft one day.

Additionally, I get to see other District Grand Lecturers so that we can complain discuss the issues in our districts. I have also found that there are a number of old-timers who are full of ideas and opinions – but good ones – and I enjoy talking to them and getting some feedback. And truth be told, I also enjoy listening to the latest gossip news about various lodges and officers and the people I’ve met.

In current business parlance, this is known as “networking.” Now, networking has developed a bad rep, mainly because people imagine a room full of insurance brokers and used car salesmen who are trying to get you to buy something that you don’t want. But consider: we explain to our Fellowcrafts that the pillars representing  Strength and Establishment are adorned with net work because it represents “unity.” And truly, how can we have unity – that is, a cohesive Craft – if members on one end of the state don’t know (or don’t care) what is happening at the other end?

When talking with a few other brothers after the meeting, it came up that very few people had – according to the poll on the Grand Lodge website – visited lodges outside of Connecticut. That led another wag to note that most Masons don’t even visit other lodges inside Connecticut.

Brothers – what’s up with that?

Before a member is even raised, we are talking to him about visiting other lodges. “Wait until you’re a Master Mason,” we love to tell them. “You’ll go to all those other lodges and see how other people do things,” we explain. It’s as if other lodges are foreign countries. In fact, part of our degree ceremonies here in Connecticut do allude to traveling in foreign parts, and how that is one of the benefits of being a Master Mason.

So why do so few of us actually take advantage of that privilege?

Sure, sometimes there is a time factor. Many of us barely make time for our own lodges, even when we know what the schedule will be. Members with a family – or a life – are already juggling evenings off. In my own family, my daughter has music lessons, Girl Scouts, and tutoring, my wife has church meetings, and I have a few non-Masonic duties each month, and I imagine that many families are not much different.

Yet I’m still amazed at the number of masons that I talk to who have never – as in, you know, never - visited another lodge. Others have gone once or twice, but “not in years,” or only for some special program. Simple curiosity isn’t enough to get somebody out of the house and into another lodge once or twice a year?

The underlying attitude that puzzles me – actually, that bothers me – is that too often I get the impression that many members forget that we are all part of a larger organization. I understand that some members feel very strongly connected to their own lodge, and that could possibly be a reason that they do not have much interest in the lodges around them. But still, why bother even mentioning “the ability to travel” if you are not going to avail yourself of the opportunity?

For that matter, why not simply remain a Fellowcraft?

Connecticut is split up into 9 Masonic districts, and each district has periodic meetings, generally the last week of the month on 5 week months to avoid clashing with regular Stated Communications. It’s a time for the officers and other interested members to see what’s happening in other lodges, and to get to know their counterparts in other lodges. You never know when you’ll need help from a sister lodge; a few bodies to help round out an MM degree, perhaps that guy who does such a great job on a Charge, or maybe you need to bring a candidate up because he missed your scheduled degree night. These meetings, the Blue Lodge Councils, are the place to make that happen.

Some districts have progressive and forward-looking people who manage to plan and organize interesting programs, so as to attract more brothers, and give them something worth traveling for.

Unfortunately, that guy in the 5th district is on vacation. That’s why next month, the only interesting thing that’s going on is a visit from this particular dummy.

Yes, that’s right – On Thursday, September 25th, the 5th District Blue Lodge Council will be held at Unity Lodge No. 148 in New Britain, at which we will be treated to the comedy stylings have the noted author (and fellow blogger) Chris Hodapp.

Dinner will be served at 6:30 pm, and non-dummies who would like to watch the show attend need to contact Bro. Dave Stern to reserve a place. The gig meeting will start around 7:30 pm. We expect quite a few of the purple apron crowd, so plan to be there ahead of time to get a good seat.

Brother Hodapp is actually exceptionally well-read, and can always be counted on for good insights and great stories and observations. He will be promoting his books, among which are Freemasons for Dummies, Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies for Dummies, The Templar Code for Dummies, and Solomon’s Builders.

I know that I’ll be there; I’m going to bring my big orange book and ask Bro. Hodapp to autograph it for me.

Tao of Masonry | Freemasonry | Masonry

Well, we pulled it off.

On Saturday, March 29, a dozen and half officers from the eight different lodges of District 5 managed to put together a very nice FC degree in the auditorium of the Masonic Health Care Center in Wallingford.

Anyone who has ever seen the bedlam which accompanies a normal degree rehearsal can only imagine what our single rehearsal was like the week before the degree. Well, that’s not fair – since half the people didn’t show up, the confusion in the temple wasn’t anything like it could have been, I’m sure.

On Saturday morning, several of the brothers met at Friendship and piled the officer’s stations, jewels, aprons, and the movable set of stairs into RWB Gary Arseneau’s and Senior Steward Kyle Charette’s pickup trucks. WB Ted Hasty, the poor guy who coordinated this event was already at the auditorium, moving the chairs and rearranging the room. By 10:45 am, everything was in position.

Which was perfect timing for my arrival at 10:55.

Apparently, WB Ted was a bit antsy about the event, and got there very early just to make sure that things were going to work out. He’s obviously my Bizarro world twin: he shows up as early as I tend to show up late. Oh, and I think that Ted has a reaction to the red kryptonite.

After the room was set up we were treated to lunch in the MHA cafeteria. I declined, owing to a traumatic lunchroom incident in my childhood involving spaghetti, soy meatloaf, and canned wildebeest – the details of which are best left to the imagination. But shortly afterwards, several of us took a small tour of the Ashlar Village facility, just up the hill from the hospital. Ashlar Village is a small community having a mixture of independent and assisted living buildings. We took a look into the newly remodeled main building. “Newly remodeled” is perhaps not the best term, and for the last several years it seems to be under a new plan called “constant remodeling.” I think that the facility changes every month. One of the highlights, though, was the small lodge room that has been built on one of the basement areas. It hasn’t been used for any official purpose, however as you can see from the pictures it’s had some unofficial uses.

By the time we got back, other people started showing up: officers from other lodges, several interested onlookers, and eventually, a few brothers from the hospital itself. Personally, I was a little disappointed at the turnout – only eight brothers from the hospital and nearby Ashlar Village ended up visiting. But that disappointment was mitigated by learning that one brother had not been to a lodge in over 40 years, and another had been hoping to see a degree for several years, but had no way to travel. Four of our guests were in wheelchairs, one had a walker, and another had a cane. One brother happened to pass by me heading down the hall and called out “What part are you doing, sonny?” I slowed down to talk to him and keep him company on the walk down. After assuring him that I really did not need to borrow his ritual book (why do some of the old timers read the books while following the degree? Self-appointed quality control inspectors?) he told me not to walk with him because he was shuffling along rather slowly and he didn’t want to hold me up. “I’m pretty sure I’ll make it by one-thirty!” he called after me as he inched along the hallway.

Click here to see the rest of the photos

The degree itself was a pleasant affair, made interesting because we had one candidate from Sequin-Level and one from Unity. Being a Fellowcraft degree, Friendship brought along their stairs. Yes, we have a set of spiral stairs that appear to have been built in the 50s; they disassemble for storage, so we were able to fit them into the back of a pickup and haul them down. Some of the visitors who had never been to Friendship spent some time testing them for strength; but we’ve never had a problem. I fear, however, that we’ll need to make some minor repairs, simply because age and knocking around in a closet every few months is taking it’s toll on them.

The officers performed admirably and the candidates had a very nice degree, made even more memorable by the fact that parts were done by officers from eight different lodges. Even the “Staircase Lecture” was broken up into several parts to allow the lodges to take a more active role.

On the way home, most of us wondered why we didn’t do this kind of thing every year. By the time several of us had driven back to Friendship to help unload the furniture, we’d resolved to have another District degree for the residents of the hospital for next year.

Tao of Masonry | Freemasonry | Masonry

“So Tom, it’s been a month since you went over to the dark side. What have you been doing with your purple apron, besides bullying lodges into giving you free meals and undeserved attention?”

Good question. Since I cut out dairy and wheat, I can’t even extort a free meal; so it looks like I’ve got to come up with a plan to make it look like I’m doing something constructive with all this power.

Actually, I’ve been busy this past month. I think that it’s important that I get out to all of the lodges in my district ASAP, if only to introduce myself and let the members know who I am and what kinds of resources are available. So far I’ve been to half of the eight lodges in my district, and I met up with the WM of another at a recent function.

But the life of a District Grand Lecturer is a lonely and frustrating one; the WMs of two different lodges have overlooked me when making introductions – one of them when I was sitting right between two Past District Deputies. Both apologized for the oversight, and fortunately my feathers aren’t so easily ruffled.

Hopefully they’ll both be prepared for the surprise inspection next month…

Seriously, the problem is that the DGL position is so new. We Masons tend to memorize things according to the rote method, and once certain pathways are laid down in our brains, we’re on autopilot. How many of us have heard our opening ceremony done by an officer that always recites things a certain way, no matter how many times he’s corrected? It’s because he learned it a certain way and just can’t get out of that ritual rut. Similarly, in Connecticut we quickly learn to watch for the purple aprons and to recognize the DDs and Past DDs, and to hopefully remember the Associate Grand Marshals. That done, it’s on to business.

But I’m I’ve made it clear that I do not want to sit on the sidelines with a checklist, so I’ve been offering my services to assist with degree work; specifically to go to rehearsals in order to help the younger officers with ritual and floor work, and if necessary, offer up some tips for floorwork. One lodge took me up on it immediately; unfortunately I’m going to be at another meeting on the night they have their EA degree, so I won’t be there to cheer them on.

I have been asked, though, to take part in several degrees. While I’m happy to show off to assist in degree work, I’m trying to get across the point that lodges need to develop their own resources, either within the ranks of members and Past Masters, or from among other lodges. In fact, when I can work out the details I’m going to present this at the next District meeting. I have an idea that some people could commit to being the “Plan B” for certain parts, available on short notice in case an officer can’t be at the degree. I have to admit that I got this idea while watching the movie version of “Farenheit 451;” at the end of the movie we learn that a number of people have read books and manage to keep the entire contents in their heads, and they travel around and recite them for others.

A couple of weeks ago, Friendship Lodge had an MM degree that was presented by the Caledonian degree team. You could probably guess from the name that this is a group of Scottish enthusiasts, and indeed, they showed up in full dress kilts… with a bagpiper. I’ve seen them in the past, and it’s a rare treat. I got to the meeting a bit late, so the officers were upstairs while the degree team was getting ready. As it happened, the team leader is an old neighbor, so instead of hurrying upstairs, I stopped to renew the acquaintance. While we were chatting, someone else mentioned that the Junior Steward was a no-show, and somehow I ended up pressed into service.

Can you imagine any other circumstance in which my wearing a skirt would not be conspicuous?

Unfortunately, they had no spare kilts – a shame, too, because it was warm. So, no, I still don’t know what’s worn under a Scotsman’s kilt.

The degree team has a little choreographed entrance and exit routine. I tried to follow along, I really did. I think that I got about 3/4 of it right, too. Unfortunately, it was those few mis-steps during the exit that will probably always call into question the wisdom of putting me in charge of any ritual.

I sure hope that those brothers are out of their casts by now.

Tao of Masonry | Freemasonry | Masonry