Truth in Numbers

1+1=2

I was always horrible at math. I never learned my times tables, I still sometimes count on my fingers and some of the simplest equations take my head an extra moment to figure out. I had to take pre-algebra 3 times. It is just not my forte. I got a Nintendo DS for Christmas from my wife and it has a game called Brain Age that through simple games tells how old your brain is. The ideal brain age is 20, I am 33, after a couple of tests including subtracting back from 107 by 9's it tells me my brain is 57! UGH!! If it asked me to explain Locke's Two Treatises of Government, I would blow it away. That's just how my grey matter works. But back to numbers.

Even though I cant do math, I love to ponder the truth of math. I like to think that if there is any truth it must be in math. It just adds up, no matter who is doing the interpretation, there is no getting around the fact that 1+1=2. Substitute the numerals with anything; apples, triangles, trucks, ships, or all seeing eyes, the simple truth is that if you take something and group it with another something you have two somethings.

When we search for truth there is no better example than math because it is true.

Now, I don't know a thing about how mathematicians and theoretical physicists do it but we have proof in everything around us that the universe can be deciphered via the magic of math. Somehow a bunch of eggheads doing complex equations figured out how to split an atom let alone prove they exist!

Math and the beauty of it is proof of a divine architect to me. As those eggheads delve deeper into a unification theory they come closer to understanding divinity because it keeps getting simpler.

If you have 16 minutes I would highly recommend viewing the video below from ted.com. If you don't know about ted.com, just check it out. My good friend shared it with me and I cant get enough. I could not figure out how to put the video pn my page so follow the link.

If we did this kind of education in lodge we could start changing the world again.

And to all the eggheads of the world, please take no offense, I wish I were an egghead.!

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/194

Beautiful Evening

As the sun in the south at its meridian height is the glory and beauty of the day, so stands.....

The Northeastern Corner

Last night the brothers of my lodge elected yours truly Junior Warden. I am humbled and honored to be able to serve my brethren and am anxiously awaiting the day of our installation in two weeks time. All should work out fine, but to quote brother Robert Burns“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley".

My participation in the installation will depend upon Mrs. North Eastern Corner who is in her final weeks of pregnancy with our newest corner stone. Although my second daughter is due January 1st, none of my children have come on time so she could make her first appearance any time between now and then, and if you ask my wife the sooner the better. Whenever she comes, whether it be this week or the night of my installation it will be a extra joyous time at our little home here in New England.

In my opinion there is no more perfect example of beauty than a child.

What a perfect symbol for my year in the South.

Beauty

"Harmony is a state recognized by great philosophers as the immediate prerequisite of beauty. A compound is termed beautiful only when its parts are in harmonious combination. The world is called beautiful and its Creator is designated the Good because good perforce must act in conformity with its own nature; and good acting according to its own nature is harmony, because the good which it accomplishes is harmonious with the good which it is. Beauty, therefore, is harmony manifesting its own intrinsic nature in the world of form."

Manly Palmer Hall,

The Secret Teachings of All Ages

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.