A Man Cant be a Master of Two Lodges

Its been a while since I posted and I have a lot of stuff to get to but I want to start off with a completely random Masonic thought.
As I will be installed as Junior Warden on our next meeting and it is in the South that his chair belongs according to our ritual, a completely random thought entered my mind today while reading a book about Australia to my daughter. In the Northern Hemisphere the sun travels East to West in the South as we see it, but in the Southern Hemisphere the sun travels its path East to West in the North. Do lodges located in the Southern Hemisphere sit their Junior Wardens in the North where the sun at its meridian height is the glory and beauty of the day?



O.K. back to business. My Masonic journey, if you remember way back in my Beautiful Evening post, left off where I was elected Junior Warden of my lodge and was supposed to be installed two weeks later depending on the birth of my Daughter. Well, wouldn't you know my Daughter was born the day before my installation yet I did not have to miss it because my brethren hold me in such high regard that they postponed the installation for a month just so I could be a part of it...... Just Kidding! But seriously, as luck would have it, the incoming master of my lodge happens to be the current master of the other lodge in my city and could not be installed that night because the incoming master of that lodge was away in the Philippines getting married and, as you may or may not know, no man can be master of two lodges at the same time so both installations had to be pushed back a month to settle everything that needed to be settled. (Got that straight?) So anyways, like it always does, things worked themselves out perfectly and I will be able to attend my installation as long as the guy from the other lodge comes back from the Philippines in time to be installed!

Due to the birth of my daughter I did however miss, for the first time ever, a scheduled meeting (gasp in horror) so I had not attended lodge in a long time before our meeting tonight, so I was a little rusty when I was thrust into my chair in the South prematurely for a sparsely attended Stated Communication. To tell you the truth I still need a lot of practice with my new lines and between sleep deprivation and about three books I am in the middle of reading, I have not taken the time I need to learn what I need to learn for my new job (gasp in horror again).

Our lodge had a visitor who lives in Texas currently whose mother lodge, The Lodge of the Three Stars, is in Germany. We did not need a translator however because he is an American. His "home" lodge in Germany is made up of a lot of active duty military personnel stationed there. He had some interesting stories of Freemasonry in Germany which is comprised of many different Grand Lodge groups formed from the various Allied countries that occupied Germany after the second World War. So there are American, English, French, etc. lodges all operating in that country all with different rituals and customs which is quite fascinating. He is a pilot who was in our city for a couple of nights and looked up our lodge on the web and saw on our schedule that we had a meeting and contacted us via a page on our website. It just goes to show how much the Internet can help our craft with its fraternal relations. He used the Internet to find our lodge for a visit and I used the Internet to do a preliminary investigation on his home lodge in Germany. Although, as I already knew but our Secretary still reminded me, his lodge had to be in our book of recognized lodges because "webs and other things do not count". Recognition is such a touchy issue. Anyway, our visitor had to endure a very awkward situation in our lodge having to do with charity that ended up taking all of our time so we never got to any education. He said however that the topic certainly got his mind going in a direction he had not broached before and enjoyed his visit. The topic is way to big just to be mentioned, so I will reserve its content for a post in the near future.

2007 was an incredible year for me. I am thinking deeper an enjoying more of this wonderful life bestowed upon me by our creator. I would like to thank all of the people who took the time to read my meanderings of the mind, especially those who took an active part in my discussions and those who went out of their way to whisper good counsel in this young craftsman's ear. I have learned allot in the scant 4 months or so of active blogging and have allot more to learn but that is what we are all here for.

Specifically I would like to thank Widows Son at The Burning Taper for being the first to stick my little blog on his list of Masonic Blogs. Tom Accuosti of the Tao of Masonry for being the second and for being the most responsive reader,he has been one of my biggest supporters. Traveling Man at Movable Jewel for mentioning one of my posts on his blog which resulted in Ben at Middlesex Fire spreading my light further from across the pond. They both have been instrumental in my success as a blogger. Lastly I would like to thank all of the Brothers who take the time to spread their light to the masses via this infant of a media outlet Blogging. Blogging at times has been my vent for frustrations, soapbox for proselytizing, and a psychiatrists couch for therapy and with out a doubt one of the great undertakings of my life. Cue music to end long thank you speech.