One night a meeting was called among some of the more active brethren of my lodge but when we got there we found that the building was already occupied by the Royal Arch members. We went elsewhere for our brief meeting but not before I caught a glimpse of some of the men who were there. They were guys I already knew and looked up to and many of the ones I did not know personally I knew by reputation. I decided then that this was a group I wanted to be part of.

Since joining, I have learned quite a bit about the order and am enjoying this pursuit. Getting to know the officers and members in my own chapter as well as the area chapters has been interesting because most of them were people I already knew to be masters of the Masonic ritual. Now it turns out that they are also masters of the Royal Arch ritual. Later I learned that they are almost all active in the Scottish Rite as well. Having a grasp on the operations of any one body is impressive enough, but many of the guys I know are experts on more than one level. It is very impressive and humbling. I am barely a master of anything, and I get to sit with these fine gentlemen who are more knowledgeable than I am ever likely to be.

So much of Masonry has been like this for me – following people whom I considered mentors, whether they knew it or not, and finding myself part of something surprisingly interesting and worthwhile. My brother (biological brother, that is) had advised me not to join any appendant bodies for at least one year and to spend that time in my mother lodge, learning and getting active. I followed his sage advice but knew early on that I would join the Royal Arch Chapter.

This year I am the king of my chapter. It’s different from being Elvis, at least so far, and I am excited about being the high priest next year. That’s when it will really feel like being Elvis!

Beer and wine aside, the purpose of the clubs at Kena or any other Shriners temple is to have an active membership. Active members are more likely to pay their dues and less likely to demit from the organization. The happier and more active they are, the more they will talk about the organization, and the Shriners Hospitals for Children, and generally raise awareness for the good works we do. The more people know about the hospitals, the more kids we can reach out to and help.

So can beer save lives? I say yes, and I am doing my best to raise awareness in a responsible way as the airlocks bubble, and one sip at a time.

Was there ever any doubt that Past Grand Master Paul Revere was a Bruins’ fan?

There’s nothing quite like seeking more light in the darkness of the night!

Thank goodness I don’t have to do all this on my own. Our Junior Warden is scheduling degrees, our deacons are helping me teach the catechisms, our immediate Past Master is running the mentorship program and the secretary is going to take care of a lot of stuff I either don’t know what to do with or don’t have time for. And he will stay on my butt about writing the trestleboard. He hounded me until I wrote a brief bio for the website and is on top of stuff enough to not let me forget to do anything. Then what am I doing? I am hoping to have things farmed out enough that I mostly just have to answer the phone and show up to meetings.

I am able to do this by forming committees. We have a culture in my lodge of not liking committees, but that’s what we have. Everyone groans when someone mentions a committee, so what I have done is asked certain brothers to take on certain responsibilities and most have been willing to do so. Leadership established! Then I invited these brothers to pull in one or two extra guys to help them get the work done. Committee established! And look – I didn’t use the word committee in my requests at all. Instead of asking for committee reports, I just ask Bro. Bob how our widows are doing and what he has planned for them.

That’s what I am doing in my lodge. Whatever you are doing in yours, be sure not to do it all yourself. Bring in other brothers to help you out and give them something to do. Not only will this reduce your workload, but you will find that you have better member retention if you ask someone to take on a task or lead a committee. It gives a sense of ownership and also allows the bonds of brotherly love to grow organically as that brother finds others to work with him. Everybody wins and the Master just has to show up and be the overseer. In theory, anyway. We will see how it all works out.

An academic lodge, as I understand it, is a regular lodge in all ways that is set up in an academic community specifically for that community. Harvard has one and now George Mason University may be getting one on campus. These lodges are set up so that only members of the university community – that is, professors, students, alumni, etc. – can join. My understanding is that the university staff, such as janitors, cannot even join.

I have a big problem with this.

First of all, let’s get out of our minds the idea that because Harvard does something that it’s necessarily good or intelligent. Having worked in the education world and many other places, I can tell you that a fancy-looking degree is just that: fancy-looking. What a person knows and can do is much more important than where he or she went to school.

What makes Freemasonry special and beautiful is that it unites and equalizes different groups of men from all walks of life. In my own lodge we have generals, admirals, presidents of banks and corporate leaders. We also have plumbers, police officers, HVAC mechanics, waiters and even lowly photographers and writers – the lowest of the low – like me. We can all shed those outer selves and sit together in unity, all members of the same organization, meeting on the level.

Academic lodges are reserved for a group that seems to see itself as an elite class. Membership is restricted based on social status. This is a step backward in the progress we have made as a fraternity and society. People used to say that the lodges were havens for white men only but now more and more of our lodges are integrated, and that makes the fraternity stronger. Now are we going to say that some lodges can restrict their membership based on educational status?

That’s not meeting on the level. That is the opposite of one of the things I hold most dear about Freemasonry.

I asked last night at our lodge meeting about this issue and was told that I would be welcome to attend the lodge meetings but that I would not be able to join. I have to ask myself whether I would even want to visit an organization that would not have me as a member based simply on my social standing. The answer is no. I want no part of such an elitist group where only some of the brethren can meet on the level.

The really positive part to all this is that it will be a great way to attract some younger Masons. For that I think the lodge will be very valuable. We aren’t just a bunch of old guys, as some may think, but I suspect the median age is still quite high. We can use some younger blood in our midst.

Overall, the whole idea left a bad taste in my mouth. I suppose I can be swayed to accept it but it might take some selling. What do you think of this idea?

The Shriners are a great part of my Masonic experience. I just learned tonight that a friend of mine was treated by Shriners Hospitals for Children. She was a young girl in Kazakhstan and had some problems. Somebody traveling through the area thought she could benefit from the free medical help our organization provides and brought her to the U.S. for a consultation. She and her mother lived here for a year while she had surgeries and treatment. They stayed in the Ronald McDonald House during their stay, so it was all at no expense.

To me that’s very moving. I don’t think anyone can convince me that there is a higher good than helping children through medical care or education. So yes, I was just fooling around in the studio when I made this photo, but what it means to me is being able to hold my head high when I don it, proud to be a part of such a fine institution that does such important and lifesaving work. To me, that means a lot.

Part of this is due to the hard work of their director and staff, in increasing the outreach they do in the community. Another angle on it is the very real truth that need for this type of service has increased dramatically over the last couple years. With the current economic situation, more people are in need and the people who were in need before are still there. In almost all sectors there is very little upward mobility. The trend has been down – layoffs, pay cuts, work reduction, etc.

What? You want to start collecting food for your local food bank? Good on you. Here’s what you do. First, get your Worshipful Master’s buy-in. As always, he rules and governs the lodge, so you really need to contact him and at least let him know what you are doing. Also, contact a local food bank to let them know what you are doing. They will be tickled pink that you are helping.

Second, put a bin in a visible location in the lodge. Start it off with some donations. It’s like a tip jar. Nobody puts a tip in an empty tip jar. Plus, your willingness to donate is a sign that you are as invested as you are asking your brethren to be.

Third, announce in lodge, via email, and even in casual conversation, that the lodge is collecting food. Have the director of the food bank come give a quick talk at a lodge meeting to describe the need and talk about what they do.

Fourth, follow through and remind the brethren. If you get a thank-you note, read it in lodge or ask your secretary to do so. Keep talking about this effort. What I do, since we do not have a fee for dinner, is encourage every brother to bring one non-perishable item for the food drive in exchange for the fine repast they enjoy. Better yet, bring two items, because you know that someone else will have forgotten.

In my estimation, this is one of the most important things we can be doing to support the community in which we live and work. Not only does it help people and keep us true to our promise, but it helps demystify Freemasonry by bringing us into the community in a visible way. That leads to questions and to more petitions for membership. You can’t ask for a better combination of all-around good results.

Oh yeah – no, that photo is not from my lodge’s food drive. We don’t have that much collected right now. Many thanks to ladybugbkt, who put this photo on Flickr.

Shriners Hospitals for Children® is a health care system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing specialty pediatric care, innovative research and outstanding teaching programs. Children up to the age of 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate are eligible for admission and receive all care in a family-centered environment with no financial obligation to patients or families.

That’s right – free medical care for kids and it doesn’t cost you a nickel to help out.

Here is how it works. You can find the lodges near you, click and find their meeting times, or you can do a search by lodge name, area code, jurisdiction or by lodge type. Currently there are only blue lodges listed in the database but I hope the author sees his way to including other organizations, such as Shriners, Royal Arch and other appendant bodies. Who knows – this could become a giant community-supported project. Maybe we could get the Prince Hall lodges in there as well. With more and more of us having visitation rights across that formerly impenetrable jurisdiction barrier, it might be nice to encourage some friendly discourse in this way.

Once you find the lodge you are looking for, you can click to its information and have the program make a map for you from where you are to the lodge. Maybe it’s me but this mapping function blows my mind. Perhaps I am easily impressed. That’s okay, I suppose.

The database is not perfect, but it is definitely a work in progress. In fact, the author of the app even included a feedback link so you can send him corrections or even just general feedback, like, “This app rocks!” That’s how I feel about it, anyway. I don’t often see apps that allow you to whisper good council in the ear of the author.

The only downside is the cost. In the current climate of iPhone apps, the $7.99 price tag on this may seem excessive. However, I guarantee that this is worth every penny if you ever travel and want to find a nearby lodge. It beats the pants off looking at lodge directories on many Grand Lodge Web sites. Here are some screen shots:

My recommendation: Go get this app now.

My first stop was to the Grand Lodge of New Mexico, where the Grand Secretary, M.W. Bro. Callahan, was good enough to show me around their museum and let me bend his ear for an hour or so. I have said before that I enjoy taking photos of the lodges in places I visit, so here are some cool ones from a hot state out west.

The Grand Lodge building. Note that I did not get the whole building in the picture. That is because I could barely see the image in my camera’s LCD, so I took a guess at what I was getting. The sun was almost directly overhead, as you can tell by the shadows, and everything in New Mexico reflects the sun much more than I have seen elsewhere.

This lodge was an outbuilding behind the Grand Lodge, like a trailer you might see on a school’s grounds. Sandia Lodge #72.

The sign looked funny so I took a closer shot. It looks like scorch marks. Maybe my brother Leroy, who grew up in Albuquerque, can explain what the heck happened to that sign. We don’t have that type of thing happening back east.

Another one: Temple Lodge #6 in Albuquerque. It was in a small strip of offices near the edge of town. You can tell you are near the edge of town very easily in New Mexico because the buildings stop and desert starts.

They also had a neat stone marker by the front door:

In Santa Fe I got to see Montezuma #1 and Cerrillos #10, which are now housed in the same building:

Montezuma #1 is Kit Carson’s mother lodge and in the lodge’s safe is Kit Carson’s rifle. I didn’t get to see it, but I was told it was right behind that safe door. Yep. What surprised me about the lodge was the five seats in the East. In Virginia we typically have two or three but I had never seen five before.

Cerrillos #10 used to be in the town of Cerrillos, which is along the Turquoise Trail – a lovely drive between Santa Fe and Albuquerque known for its – you guessed it – turquoise. As the cities grew and work dried up in the rural areas, a number of towns like Cerrillos closed up shop. There really are ghost towns in the state, like you used to see on Saturday cartoons. here is the new Cerrillos #10:

Finally, I got a tour of the Santa Fe Scottish Rite building. It was a fantastic place to behold. It was quite dark inside, though, even in the middle of the day, so I was unable to get a good shot of the interior. if you are ever in the Santa Fe area, though, I recommend stopping by to see the place. I am not in the Scottish Rite so some of the symbolism was lost on me but I did note the 29 stairs leading to the front door and a few other features.

So now I have another hurdle to overcome. I recently met a man who was a Mason in a lodge holden under the American-Canadian Grand Lodge, which is holden under the United Grand Lodges of Germany.  This fellow was raised 40 years ago in a lodge that  no longer exists. So of course I agreed to help him figure out all this and get him a demit from that grand lodge so he can affiliate with a lodge where he currently resides and thus sit in lodge with his son, who is about to start his degree process. At least that grand lodge is an English-speaking one. I can’t imagine what we would do if he said it was the Grand Lodge of Slovakia or something.

At any rate, I emailed the grand secretary to see how we should proceed. Hopefully he will be affiliated and a regular dues-paying member somewhere before long and he can see his son get raised. That’s the hope, anyway.

But back to the installation. It’s always a lot of fun to get the brethren together and see the officers, especially the new ones, dressed up in tuxedos and white gloves. In our society, even within Masonry, there is a movement to take the formality out of what we do and slide into a business casual way of dressing and conducting ourselves.

Let me come down now and say that I prefer the more formal way of dressing, at least for Masonic activities. For one thing, we have a good number of younger members, college-age guys, who can use the practice dressing up. I know it’s not rocket science but unless you went to a military academy, formal dress was probably never emphasized in your college experience.

In addition, I think the formal dress we usually have – suit and tie – adds to the solemnity and formality of the evening’s activities. We sometimes get the complaint that it’s hard for people in some lines of work to wear a suit. Personally, I don’t buy it. Our last master was a police officer and the one before him was a plumber. Both these men managed to put on a suit. Sometimes it was in their vehicles or in the lodge bathroom, but they always managed it. We had a member who died a few years ago whose life’s work had been in the world of trains. I have heard stories of him getting off work looking like he rolled in coal dust but somehow getting it together enough to look good for the meetings.

Dressing up can go a bit haywire though. Alexandria-Washington Lodge #22 has its officers dress in tuxedos for each meeting because they have certain strong traditions they want to keep in place and want to attract certain types of members. I was talking to one of their officers about this one day and mentioned that I would not be attracted to that type of lodge partly because of the dress required. Of course, I may not be their target member. That’s a self-correcting issue, I suppose.

At any rate, we have another year of officers installed and ready to go for our first stated communication on January 7. come on down and join us!

Carl Weaver in the South

Thanks for this photo, Jason. We will miss you and wish you the best. don’t forget to call on us next time life brings you back to the DC area.

When I got to the Rameses Shrine Center, where the lodge met, the brethren welcomed me quite warmly and seemed surprised to see someone as young as I was as a visitor. Most daylight lodges are attended by brethren who are retired and many of the members have trouble driving at night, hence the benefit of meeting during the day. The brethren were upset because the junior warden was going to absent that day.

I spoke up, jokingly saying that I would normally be glad to sit in the seat, as that was my station at my mother lodge, but that more than likely, Ontario ritual was sufficiently different from Virginia ritual that I would not do a good job. They said no, they were sure it was similar enough, and maybe I should sit there. wouldn’t it be fun to have a visitor in a station?

Luckily, somebody else piped up and volunteered. I was glad, as I saw the meeting open and realized that I had no idea what was going on. Completely different from what I was used to.

On another note, for those of you who travel somewhere, please learn from my mistakes. First, never volunteer to do anything or else you could be caught with your pants down. Second, bring an apron with you. The brethren at Victory Lodge were friendly enough to lend me one but they had to look for one to lend me. In Virginia it is customary to have a set of plain aprons outside the lodge door for people to grab and wear, should they not bring one of their own. I forgot that this is not a universal custom!

The potentate of Kena Shriners lowered the initiation fees significantly, so that even a former English student like me could afford to join. I was at my first Shriners meeting last week and was reminded why I joined. The first part of the meeting was set aside to discuss the recent expenses for taking kids from here in northern Virginia to various Shriners hospitals.

The Shriners are known to be a fun-loving group and are sometimes called the playground of Freemasonry. That will be a nice thing to explore. However, the reason I joined was to support the good works the Shriners do – running a network of more than 20 hospitals that offer special treatment for children at no cost. Seriously. No cost. What can be more worthwhile than that?

Actually, committing them to memory is not even the hard part. The hard part is speaking them and trying to get them exactly right in front of an audience. I can recite the words and get them just right when practicing in the shower or in the car to and from work, but it’s a different thing to get them just right in front of people – past masters, past district deputy grand masters, new brethren you want to set a good example for – and feel comfortable doing it.

Our treasurer, also a PDDGM, asked me how I thought it went at the end of the evening. “Better than last time,” I said. “Well, progress is a good sign,” he answered. “That’s what you want.”

The elder members of the lodge (elder in terms of experience and time in the fraternity) have been extremely supportive and have given me the encouragement I have needed to feel more comfortable delivering these speeches. I am now working on learning the FC and MM obligations and really appreciate this support.

York Masonic Temple:

Cornerstones in a memorial garden at York Masonic Temple. These are probably from different temples whose lodges merged.

Rameses Shriners:

And at the other end of the building is the Scottish Rite:

And Thornhill Masonic Temple, which had graffiti on the doors but did not appear to be in a bad area. Probably just neighborhood kids.

This is not Masonic, but should you be traveling through Toronto and want what I consider to be the best authentic Chinese food ever, try out Buddha’s Vegetarian Restaurant on Dundas, between Bathurst and Spadina. Yum!

The Grand Lodge of Virginia has a Masonic correspondence course for brethren in Virginia who are interested in learning the laws of Masonry in the Commonwealth. This is a three-part course that looks a bit at the ritual and common knowledge of Freemasonry but really focuses on the written laws.

The written laws are of great importance to the Craft, and as you might imagine, dictate how Masonry works. What is or is not allowed? Who does what in the Lodge? Knowing the laws is important. It gives you the power to challenge people, and even more important, the knowledge of when you should challenge them.

Have you ever been in a situation when someone said you couldn’t do something because it’s against the rules? Have you ever thought somebody was making up the rules as he or she went along? The nice thing about Virginia Masonry is that the laws are all written out, allowing all of us to read them and learn the final word on an issue.

The most important part of this course is not learning the rules and laws themselves but learning how to read and navigate the law books.

This is all to say that I finally completed the third and final course and mailed off my answer sheets a couple days ago. It feels good to have done this, as it was a bit of a challenge to sit with the books, knowing the answer is somewhere within them and still unable to find it. I am glad to be done with it and am looking forward to getting the certificate to hang on my wall but now wonder what’s next for me in my Masonic education.

What are you doing to expand yourself within your lodge?

One of my roles as the junior warden  is to schedule degrees. If you have never had this task, you are in for a treat someday. I get to call the local Masonic elite and ask them to help me out by delivering lectures and playing some sort of part in these ceremonies. The degree nights are likely some of the most memorable the candidates will have in their whole adult life and it takes a lot of guys to put them on.

So far I have found that the process of arranging everything is kind of a pain in the butt but when it all comes together it is worth it. The step-limiting factor in arranging degrees is getting a lecturer. These members are few and far between due to the difficulty of memorizing such long speeches. It’s a tough prospect to learn a lecture but one that every lodge should aspire to foster in the members, as the lecture is something that cannot be dispensed with.

Once the lecturer is booked, I feel pretty good scheduling the date. Everything else seems to fall into place pretty easily. Our members are well-versed enough in the ritual that we can pull together a good team to confer the degrees.

At Cherrydale Lodge I just scheduled two degree nights (FC & MM) coming up next month and hope to have a third one (EA) stuck in there somewhere as well. Traveling through Arlington, VA? Let me know. We would love to have you visit, either for a stated communication (1st and 3rd Thursdays) or for a called communication (7 & 27 April, so far).

Many Masons regard this trend as a negative and very sad thing. However, I see problems like this as opportunities for the future. On one hand, yes, it is sad to lose the building we called home, which is imbued with such history stretching back many years before our own. On the other hand, the problem of declining memberships and thus declining income is real. If several lodges can band together and help each other by renting a space together or else merging, that is the ultimate demonstration of Masonic relief.

In the case of this lodge building in Toronto, MTV recognized that it is an important city landmark and thus kept part of its identity. I would love to see inside the building to see if any of the fixtures and part of its old character are still there.

My lodge is lucky. We have a retail space on the first floor and have had a tenant there – same tenant, mind you – for quite a number of years. If I am not mistake, the hardware store has been there since the building was completed. I am not sure about that claim but can check.

As such, we have a constant stream of income and have been able to save over the years. We have a nice little nest egg with which to do building improvements and support the various events and charitable works we do, not to mention covering regular expenses. If we had to go on dues alone we would be in deep trouble.

With about 225 members and dues recently raised to $75 per year, we have an income of $16,875. That does not account for those of us who have already purchased lifetime memberships and thus no longer pay yearly dues. That also does not account for brethren who have fallen on hard times and are not current, or else owe back dues. but even if we did have that whole amount in dues, we surely would be scraping the bottom of the barrel to make ends meet. Mind you, we are talking about the Washington, DC area, which is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. That money would go much farther in many other places.

At some point it makes sense to merge or else find space to share. Sure, it’s a bit sad but I would rather be sad than see the fraternity disappear.

Of course, the Grand Lodge didn’t just set up the training, but they bribed us to come. For one thing, the only way to get MW Hodges’ pin is to shake his hand. So if you want a pin, you have to go wherever he is and be good enough to introduce yourself. Also, they were giving out this commemorative coin to the brethren who attended. (The grand master’s pin looks like the obverse on the coin below.)

front:

and back:

Yes, I called it a bribe. I have to admit that it seems to work. Even those of us who would go to these events regardless still love to collect the pins and coins and such!

This watermelon was done in celebration of the 60th Masonic anniversary of Admiral Wm. Gene Sizemore, one of our past masters and a great supporter of our lodge. Bro. Baisis, the resident fruit artist, asked me before the dinner if we had enough carved watermelons or if he should do another one. There were two out already and I assured him that it was enough. Apparently it would not take much for him to do a third like this. He also did one for our installation of officers at the end of last year:

We should all think back to the nights of our degrees so we can remember how confusing it was to us as candidates but also how special it was. I remember being humbled by the spectacle of it all – the pageantry and effort, the number of people involved in an evening that was all about me. Well, me, along with another candidate, anyway. These men hardly knew us but were hard at work putting together a ritual to bring us into the fraternity.

What can we take away from all this? For one thing, the importance of mentorship, preparation for the degree and then explanation of it afterward. Also gentleness. How do we want our candidates to feel when going home that night? Should they be in awe of the mysticism of the ritual or should they be thinking of being scared, not knowing what was going on?

These are just some thoughts I had for this evening, reflecting on two years of Masonic membership.

Rt. Wor. Peak spoke to us about the Grand Master’s program for the year and encouraged all of us to be as involved as we can be in the workings of our lodge.