Strength?

Many of times I sit some place and listen to whats going on around me.  The one thing I get called a lot is "strange" or "weird". I have to snicker at that. Too many times I have seen it from one place or another with a group of people you will see someone that does not fit in somehow. So instead of getting to know them and trying to bring them into the fold it is just easier to sit that and find faults in them.

In that we fail to see the strength that someone has or the strength they can bring to the whole for they are being pushed under the level.  I make no bones about it, I and different but are we all just different in our own ways?  With in my travels from here and there the one thing that keeps a group going and keeps a group strong happens when they do bring others into the fold and let them grow.  There are many groups that do not do that and I have seen how they become weak and die off.  As masons we stand together as one, we are strong for the brotherhood and friendship we share.  There is something warm about it when a brother whom we have never meet comes over and right away he is brought into the fold.

It is too easy to sit there and wish ill of someone or something and just blindly say they are strange.  While on campus I tell people go forth and talk to the person sitting there, get to know them. Too many times we are unaware of what they can bring into our life. A lot of times it is this willingness and hand of friendship that becomes the hand of strength. It is at times like this do we as a person and as a group work toward a bigger and better understanding.

A Past District Deputy Grand Master once sat down with me at table and shared something about what he saw as a kid and how it shaped him and guided him in his life.  While at camp he saw a group of boys picking on someone who was a little off, different and strange. That kid stood there and got picked on and he the PDDGM as a boy laughed as the group bullied away. The camp director put an end to it and punished all the boys including him the PPDGM. The PDDGM told me he asked the director why was he also being punished, he was not picking on any one. True he was not saying any thing, and that was part of the problem. He sat back lit his cigar and looked at me and said, see even tho I was not picking on the boy I was able to stand up and stop them. He did not, he let this fellow camper be picked on and that was the problem.  After that he would never let someone get called names or be left out in the cold.  It had a real big effect on him, he became stronger when he said stop it in his life.

We become strong when we all are on the same level and we don't let someone walk away feeling out-stead.  We become stronger as a whole when we work with the people to learn and grow with us.  Many of times in today's world we loose site that each person brings something different to the table, be it skills, knowledge, and even just an ear to listen.

I know a fellow mason whom stronger then me, he can look at someone and find the good that makes them. He is always supportive of the people around him, he always looks for ways to bring them up. That takes strength, the type of strength we all need to share in and have. To reach over the divide with the hand of love and friendship.

Prevent Daubing with Untempered Mortar

So we all have heard the statement “prevent daubing with untempered mortar” but few if any where able to tell me what it meant or where it came from. All I was able to get from fellow Masons was a shrugged shoulder with blank looks and the all too common statement of whatever it means is unknown to me. It was one Mason that told me all the answers lay within the pages of the volume of sacred law. After doing “some” reading and thought, I was able to find the passage withinthe volume. It was in the book of Ezekiel that I came across the passage that this line was taken from.

“So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be uncovered, and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in its midst: and you shall know that I am the LORD. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it.” Ezekiel13: 11-15

This was a lot to take in. At first I was at a loss as to what this all meant. After reading Ezekiel some more it was clear that God was talking about foolish/false prophets and lies used to whitewash events in hopes to hold things together. For mortar to be tempered it needs to be strong, like operative Masonrythe mortar used to build dries between stone and brick to bring forth a strong wall. Yet what does this mean for us, the speculative Masons? 

Here in our lives we have forged walls for our houses to stand with. The walls we have and used are made from the relations we have with the people within our lives, be them family, co-workers, friends, brothers, and people we don’t see eye to eye with. We see how a person will lie and try to cover up things in hope that they will be able to hold their world together. Even then people try to smooth over deep breaks between people by a quick whitewash action with in their lives believing/hoping that things will work. We can put the news on and see how things look fantastic for someone’s life but when the personal cracks start to show and the truth comes out, the walls fall apart. 

“So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be uncovered, and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in its midst”. There are too many people on the news to list that we all have seen in the spotlight of everything falling apart in their life. Uncovered allusions to the truth being shown and how weak stories and lies will lead to everything falling apart on you. Simply put forth by Joe Crews in his book Hidden Eyes and Closed Ears, “The untempered mortar represents an effort to gloss over the seriousness of the defect by false teaching instead of leading the people back to full obedience.”

As Masons we are told we should be obedient to our faith and to be on the level with each other. When we cheat and defraud others we are no longer on the level and we start to let cracks form with the walls we have building with the people we care about. These are not walls to keep someone out, but walls to support our house and each other. We are told as EAs that we are to “prevent daubing with untempered mortar” and the obligation we take and what we learn with in the Speculative Lodge show us the way we should go.

Where I find peace

Its funny how we walk around and no matter what we don't see what we need the most right there in front of us. Thanksgiving is over. X-mas shopping is here but I can safety say that I am where there is good will and enjoyment. What started out from one mason giving the call to hang out and enjoy each others company had made me see that this is what heaven should be like.  We don't need much, just a room and some thing to eat and we are set.  Someone plugged in a laptop and we have tunes playing and someone else brought out some moonshine.  And right there in the middle of the run filled with 14 fellow masons I see what it means to be brothers.  There nothing else matters but each other. It is nice to sit back and share with each other, be it good will or just to vent.  The room is filled with good cheer and laughter. This is what its all about, fellowship.  It is not a hard idea for people to follow.  This is something that we all in the world should strive for. Do I call all these men here is this room my friend? No, I don't.

They are more then that. They are more then just brothers, they all hold something important to me and like wise.  This is something that masonry and shown me. When I pass I know what heaven is, it is this room with these masons that care and support each other.  I don't need X-mas to find good will and cheer. I can find it all the time with in the family of Masonry.  Be it in the home Lodge, or with in the warmth of fellow masons sitting bad and enjoying each others company. 

It is funny to a point when people see me on the street or on the job and they all notice the ring or my hat with the Masonic Square on it. Some people know right away what it means and others will ask and when they hear Freemason they will ask me what does it all mean.

Truth is I wounder at times what does it all mean to me. I can sit here and tell people what this and that means, and what we do (sorry no world controlling plans, unless I missed that memo). So I have to ask myself, do I tell people what Grand Lodge of New York and the rest of the Grand Lodges say or do I tell them what it all means to me?  Don't get me wrong Grand Lodge of New York does a fantastic job telling people what we are about.  But as it does there is something you get from hear what a person feels and what they take from it. I for one like sitting there and listening to the brothers that have been masons for a long time and hearing them talk about there time with in Freemasonry.

For starters I should say something about whom I am. There is not much to say about myself other then I am still tring to figure out where I belong in the world. There is no real shock to that for most I figure, we all want to feel like we belong to something and that we are wanted.  I feel like I am part of Freemasonry when I go to my lodge or when I get to sit in on meetings of others.