There has been much debate and conjecture at my lodge leading up to our annual meeting that will be held tomorrow night. As far as I know my name will be on the ballot for Junior Warden of the lodge, which depending on who you talk to is a good and a bad thing. The brethren who I have talked with who are opposed to the idea, are so because they want me to progress through the officers chairs a little slower. They say that it is so I can get a better idea of how it is to be the junior officers particularly Senior Deacon before being thrust towards the East. I would have no problem with doing that, and would love to be Senior Deacon with all of its challenges, if it were not for the pressing need for my lodge for some new and active leadership. Our officer line has been a little stagnant and if I hadn't come along I think my lodge would be in more trouble than we are already are in.
Of the four brothers who were not Past Masters ahead of me in line when I became the Senior Steward: One has no aspirations for anything beyond Junior Steward for the time being, because he does not like to talk in public and his work schedule has been interfering with his labors in the craft. The next one has his hands in too many organizations and misses most of our meetings. The two left are the current Junior Warden who has had a horrible tragedy in his family but says he will continue to the Senior Wardens chair this year and the other is the current sitting Master of my lodge who cant wait to vacate the Oriental East.
So, at our last meeting which seems like an eternity ago, when the subject of our Grand Lodges upcoming Wardens seminar was brought up, the WM in conjunction with our Chaplain, looked over to me, who happened to be sitting in the Junior Deacons chair where I had been for a few meetings covering for a brother, and said "maybe we should send "the kid" to the seminar and move him to the South next year" and if you saw my picture on The Tao of Masonry you know what happened since.
Anyway, however my brethren decide to put this Master Mason to labor tomorrow night I will be prepared to do my best for the benefit of my lodge, as I have always done. Which brings me to Beauty.
If I am to be appointed to a chair in the South I will be the representation in our lodge of Beauty which led me to one of my (newly) favorite writers Manly Palmer Hall and his Magnum Opus "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" and the quote at the beginning.
In my life I have tried to be true to myself. At a young age I explored the meaning of life and how it applied to me. The first step toward enlightenment is to follow the words that were inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi "Know Thyself". It is the first step towards Beauty. Before you can explore the secrets of the world that our Creator has designed, study his creation that you can know best, Yourself. By knowing yourself you can act in harmony with what you were put here to do, leading to Beauty and the Great Architect of that Beauty.
My living in harmony with what I was put here to do led me to Freemasonry and to my lodge and even to this blog. If my harmony manifests itself into being the Junior Warden I will represent Beauty and share it with my brothers.
To all of my Blog Brethren who will ascend to the South this year, and that seems to be a lot of you, keep the quote above in mind and reflect upon it in your term as Junior Warden.
