Recently while looking through a popular catalog for silly trinkets and clever clothing I came across something. It was a sweatshirt that said “Commas Save Lives”. It was accompanied by the two phrases, “Let’s eat, Grandma.” And “Let’s eat Grandma”. See the difference? The misuse of the comma is also the bane of many an English teacher across the country. Commas are very useful of course, in fact, necessary as they separate correlating pairs, verbs from subjects, etc. Commas can also on occasion change the meaning of the message quite
un-intentionally as in “Let’s EAT GRANDMA.” Instead of asking Grandma to eat, it implies you are going to eat grandma herself. That’s quite a difference.
Imagine, for a moment, that membership in the Institution of American Freemasonry has finally fallen to its pre-Civil War level. That level is reported to have been somewhere between 55,000 and 66,000 members, depending on the source records. A little reflection or study would dissipate the belief that such a time and circumstance is unimaginable. But widespread reflection and study among Masons is not something that has, with any degree of steadiness, much less uniformity, achieved great heights. After all, it is commonplace in the American fraternity to simply accept that if a man is admitted into the ranks, it means that he must be a good man, and that he can be rushed through degrees and that he will easily grasp the profound lessons of the Craft.
Read MoreThere are multiple rabbit holes in which to tumble down and back again when studying Freemasonry. One topic, however, that has never come close to bringing order out of chaos is Masonic Landmarks. If there was ever a subject in Freemasonry worthy of a grand prize for wholly neglecting the use of scientific methods of research, Masonic Landmarks is the nominee on which to wager. Among masons, there is no term more common, and less understood, than that of “landmarks.” The importance of knowing they exist is acknowledged by all; a knowledge of them is held but by a few.” That statement was made by Masonic author, A.S. McBride in 1914, and it remains accurate today, although his assertion that “a knowledge of them is held but by a few” is questionable.
Read MoreTonight, I want to share with you some a few things about the season we are in. At its surface, the Christmas holidays have no intrinsic connection to the fraternity. What I mean by that is nowhere in our degrees do we find Freemasonry linking itself to any nationally or world-practiced holiday. Now, we all know Freemasonry is not a religion nor a substitute for religion. It requires of its members a belief in a Supreme Being but advocates no sectarian faith or practice. Masonic ceremonies include prayers of course – both traditional and impromptu – to reaffirm everyone’s dependence on the Supreme Bring and to seek divine guidance.
Read MoreCounting the grains of sand on a beach may be easier than counting the number of conversations among Masons since the early 1960s about the relentless decline of membership in the fraternity. Perhaps equal to such a task would be counting the opinions expressed since then that offered explanations behind the spectacular steadiness of the drop. It may be argued that we can find specific times in the factual history of American Freemasonry when many of its members and leaders failed to take into account the importance of situational awareness (simply knowing what is going on around you). A close examination of the period from the 1940s through 1959, coupled with the actions (or lack thereof) and the consequences that followed over the next 60 years, wins hands down in the category called, Scarcity of Situational Awareness.
Read More
Maximilien Ringelmann, a French agricultural engineer, was interested in agricultural efficiency, primarily the conditions under which draft animals such as horses and oxen—and men—are more or less efficient in their work performance. In the 1880s, he conducted experiments at the agricultural school of Grand-Jouan in southeastern France, leading to one of the earliest discoveries in the history of social psychology. Some described Ringelmann to be described as a founder of social psychology. His copious notes, unpublished until 1913, document how he organized and conducted the research. He asked participants to pull as hard as they could on a rope, alone and then in groups of two, three, and eight in an experimental tug of war.
Read MoreWhat makes you a Mason? That question should invoke the same answer from Masons, but it is one of those answers that is not explored in-depth, thus we find it meaning skewed. Comparable in slant is the phrase, it is the internal, not the external that Masonry regards, which so quickly becomes the refrain of those who defend and attempt to justify the range of casual to excessive-casual attire worn to Lodge. Frank was a forty-year veteran member of the fraternity and long-ago, past master. The two lapels of his coat, always adorned with colorful pins attesting his membership in numerous appendant bodies, he was well-known for his uninvited prompts during ritual and other ceremonies and for carrying a copy of the by-laws of his Lodge in the breast pocket of his lapel-laden coat.
Read More
The first time American Freemasonry shot itself in the foot was in the final decades of the 18th century. A December 1779 document tells us the state and condition of the Fraternity and offered a bold recommendation to address the condition. The failure of existing Grand Lodges to act on the recommendation cocked the pistol. The failure to do anything about the condition of the Fraternity that led to the recommendation pulled the trigger that led to the limp. The call for Grand Lodges to examine the 1779 recommendation would be made thirteen more times before the end of 1860. Each call was rejected. The indifference and failure to recognize and acknowledge the serious underlying issues that caused the recommendations to resurface for decades led to an aggravating, lasting limp.
Read MoreThe true goal of Masonic education should be continuity: preserving what has been learned from one generation to the next rather than neglecting or discounting what has been learned in the past (or from it). There are reports that the Masonic Institution is working on that. Masons do not need to be accomplished historians. There should, however, be some agreement that if we came to Freemasonry to learn (which is one of the things that every man initiated has declared he comes to Freemasonry to do), then is there not some importance too, beyond just finding out there have been men of historical note who were Freemasons, or merely being aware that speculative Masonry is believed to have evolved from operative stonemasons?
Read MoreTonight, we are going explore the timely topic for this time of year: Thanksgiving.
I want to share with you a story you may not have heard about how the 4th Thursday in November became our traditional Thanksgiving Holiday. What is the connection between the concern of parents that their children were being corrupted in the early1600 by a government in which they had lost their faith to Thanksgiving Day? How did an unworthy sea vessel, an unexpected ocean storm, a 1621 letter, and a part Cherokee Indian in 1789, lead us to our Thanksgiving Day? What did a Boston Masonic Lodge in 1823 have to do with an anti-slavery book and the woman who wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb and an 1827 lady’s magazine article with a recipe have to do with how our Thanksgiving Day came about? What did Secretary War and anti-Mason, William Steward in Lincoln’s administration have to do with writing Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation to celebrate a Day of Thanksgiving?