The snow held off.The ceremony was beautiful.
I'm the one in the tuxedo!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Installation Excitement
Barring an act of God or an attack of the killer zombies, tonight I will be installed as the Junior Warden of my lodge, and boy am I excited.
Last night I had one of my Brethren over for a fire pit-side chat over a beautiful single malt and my favorite cigar. I had invited him over to help him with his lines for Junior Deacon. We are expecting 30 or so visitors for the installation and I wanted to help my brother polish his ritual. What should have been a couple of hours of practicing turned into a brain storm over the future of Old St. John's. This bother of mine is a diamond in the ruff. He had been a part turning an other organization in my city into thriving club. He started our conversation with how we need to do more charitable acts to gain recognition in our city which I retorted with Freemasonry is not a charity. Which kicked our conversation into overdrive.
Let me shed a little more light on my Brother. He is the Junior Deacon of my lodge and has been a luke warm participant in most of our meetings since I have joined. He has been a Mason for over four years and has been kind of swinging in the breeze because he was never really taught what our fraternity was really about.
He is the result of a "One Day Mason" class.
He was thrown into the craft without the time to reflect on the degrees.
After I addressed what I dreamed our lodge of becoming and gave a brief synopsis of the history of our order, he told me that he regrets being raised in one day because he never had the one on one interaction between mentor and candidate that goes on in between degrees. It is in these meetings that allot of the craft's history and purpose is explained to the new brother. He missed that and needed a catch up lesson which I gladly gave.
Clearing up on the purpose of a Freemasons Lodge we went about discussing the project we need to share between our brethren, restoring our lodge to its former glory. For the first time in a long time my Brother became excited about lodge. We decided that if we could have more fire pit-side chats with more of the new generation brethren in our lodge we could accomplish anything we set ourselves out to do.
Our job is a big one.
But like Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect (1894-1912); Director of Works for the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893; architect of the Chicago Masonic Temple said:
“Make no little plans. They have no magic to
stir men’s blood and probably themselves will
not be realized. Make big plans, aim high in
hope and work, remembering that a noble,
logical diagram once recorded will never die,
but long after we are gone will be a living thing,
asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.
Remember that our sons and grandsons are
going to do things that would stagger us. Let
your watchword be order and your beacon
beauty. Think big.”
stir men’s blood and probably themselves will
not be realized. Make big plans, aim high in
hope and work, remembering that a noble,
logical diagram once recorded will never die,
but long after we are gone will be a living thing,
asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.
Remember that our sons and grandsons are
going to do things that would stagger us. Let
your watchword be order and your beacon
beauty. Think big.”
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Creative Energies
Subduing your passions is hard.
I sometimes am easily overcome with a thought or idea and said thought or idea can consume my attention for a period of time. This was, yet again, pointed out to me by the Worshipful Master of my home (aka The Wife) who said that I was addicted to my blog. The statement came after I had yet again sat down at my computer to work on my new logo which I had been doing for about a week straight. Being a man, and a defensive one at that, I said in my oh so mature way "am not" and continued with what I was doing muttering to myself how she doesn't understand me. But, like with most admonitions, as the day passed by I saw the light and realized that I had become addicted.
I always wanted a Celtic Square and Compasses design and I had never been happy with my logo that I started the blog with. I had created it for my lodges first annual St. Patrick's Day Feast and it was my first attempt at a computer graphic. While at the time it did the job, it never lived up to the vision I had in my head and to top things off no one knew that the symbol in the middle was a G in Gaelic font. As my knowledge of the computer grew exponentially with my blog experience I longed for a better header for my blog. (I am so narcissistic)
My logo took an sharp upward jump after a conversation with my good friend, who I have mentioned a couple of times in my posts who is a graphic artist. He, after reading my blog too long and getting in trouble with his wife, did a quick upgrade to my little logo. This, in turn, jump started my creative energies.
The next evolution began with a pencil drawing session with my 4 year old daughter. While she was drawing a beautiful stick figure portrait of our newly bigger family, I came up with the overall outline of what I wanted on one of her 5x5 inch scraps of paper. She saw what I was drawing and said "Daddy you re drawing your lodge", which made me smile. I have brought her a couple of time to the lodge with me and she loves "the lodge guys".
I sometimes am easily overcome with a thought or idea and said thought or idea can consume my attention for a period of time. This was, yet again, pointed out to me by the Worshipful Master of my home (aka The Wife) who said that I was addicted to my blog. The statement came after I had yet again sat down at my computer to work on my new logo which I had been doing for about a week straight. Being a man, and a defensive one at that, I said in my oh so mature way "am not" and continued with what I was doing muttering to myself how she doesn't understand me. But, like with most admonitions, as the day passed by I saw the light and realized that I had become addicted.
I always wanted a Celtic Square and Compasses design and I had never been happy with my logo that I started the blog with. I had created it for my lodges first annual St. Patrick's Day Feast and it was my first attempt at a computer graphic. While at the time it did the job, it never lived up to the vision I had in my head and to top things off no one knew that the symbol in the middle was a G in Gaelic font. As my knowledge of the computer grew exponentially with my blog experience I longed for a better header for my blog. (I am so narcissistic)
My logo took an sharp upward jump after a conversation with my good friend, who I have mentioned a couple of times in my posts who is a graphic artist. He, after reading my blog too long and getting in trouble with his wife, did a quick upgrade to my little logo. This, in turn, jump started my creative energies.
The next evolution began with a pencil drawing session with my 4 year old daughter. While she was drawing a beautiful stick figure portrait of our newly bigger family, I came up with the overall outline of what I wanted on one of her 5x5 inch scraps of paper. She saw what I was drawing and said "Daddy you re drawing your lodge", which made me smile. I have brought her a couple of time to the lodge with me and she loves "the lodge guys".
I took that outline and moved on to my computer and the new graphic design program I purchased. As with most things that I take up, I jumped in head first not knowing a thing about what I was doing. I did manage somehow to point, drag, and click my way to a halfway decent outline of compasses which I proudly showed my friend during our long overdue old fashioned B.S. session. He then, with much wizardry, showed me more things in a couple of minutes than I had learned in the entire week I had been frustratingly playing around with the program. The creative flame was now fanned to the point of combustion.
I spent the next week, at any possible moment I could, furiously creating. Sometimes with a four year old climbing all over me, sometimes with a four week old squirming or sleeping in my arms. The result is the new header logo for my blog. If you dropped in on my blog before last night it was way too huge, because I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller. After some help from "webfixer" from the blogger help group and my good friend who tweaked my design I am now happy with my logo. Well not completely because being a perfectionist I will never be completely happy but I am light years from where I was.
As I told my wife later, after admitting my addiction which is the first step towards recovery, at least my addiction is leading towards creative things. Right?
Friday, January 11, 2008
Obligation and Self Interest
Being a part of a lodge that is coming upon another turning point in its history is sometimes hard. For almost 243 years my lodge has survived. Through revolutions, buildings, movings, hard times, good times, world wars, and declined interest, it has stood the test time for almost a quarter millennia. Man that is a long time. Thousands of men have held office in the lodge. It is a heavy responsibility entering the South this year on my way to the Oriental Chair. To tell you the truth there is not many moments where I don not think of how the fate of such an old institution is in my hands. It is daunting.
We are a lodge with no real home.
We are a lodge who's numbers can only decrease incrementally no matter how many we can bring in.
The men who have held the torch for so long will be vacating important positions and it will be up to me and my contemporaries to run the next leg.
After the New Year I decided to tell my mentor that I was guilty of blogging under a pseudonym. I am really proud of what I have built here and wanted to share with one of my Lodge Brothers my thoughts. It was not an easy decision to make. My semi-anonymity provided a curtain to hide behind so my rants or raves could be pure and uninfluenced by thinking about someone getting offended. It served a purpose but it made me uneasy because I have nothing to hide. The thoughts I have published for the whole wide world to read needed to be entered into the forum of discussion of my lodge. I will freely admit that my disclosure to my mentor has already affected my posting. There have been a couple of things that I would have had no problem sharing before I knew someone at my lodge might read it and know about. Nothing earth shattering or scandalous but as I writer there is now a bell that goes off when I write about mt experiences. C'est la vie.
I am happy that I can now at least have a force on the sidelines knowing what I dream about doing with Old St. John's.
There is much work to be done.
The first thing we need is a crop of candidates who want to rebuild this old group as much as I want to.
For to long it has been up to one man, who like atlas, has carried the great burden of keeping the lodge alive upon his shoulders. He has done everything. He has single handily ran my lodge for a long time because no one else would. Yeah there have been many men who have sat in the East in the past 20 or so years but it seems to me it was much easier for them to allow this one man to do everything for the lodge because no one had a vision for the future of the lodge. St. Johns has always been there and would always be there is an all to common attitude of most of my brethren. Now I do not want for one second to downplay anyone else's contribution to my lodge, but in my 2 years of being at every meeting (but one) there is only one who has captained this ship and has been the chief, cook, and bottle washer for too long. This man happens to be, of course, my mentor.
One of the stories he has repeated to me, and everyone else, on many occasions is of how his fathers lodge back in his home state went dark the day his father died. It is his great fear that if something were to happen to him that the same fate would befall old St. John's. I of course always respond to that story with "You don't have to worry about that anymore because I'm here". My response has never been received with what I expect because the last thing he wants to happen is for me to take his place as the "glue" as he has been called. It is not because he doesn't think I am capable but that he doesn't want me to shoulder all of the responsibility for the next twenty years. "It will break the strongest man" he tells me.
We have discussed on many occasions the fate of our lodge and he is very right in not allowing me to just do everything that I want to do. I would gladly relieve him of the burden but I cant do it alone like he has. I need a team. That is what a lodge is supposed to be.
I received a great response from my Beauty post from Brother Rui Banderia all the way from Portugal and there is one line that sticks out in my head from his comment that really helps with what my lodge needs:
"The important thing is that each Lodge be capable of building its own project. Once that's done, the Lodge identity is established and all the problems (there are always problems) are solved."
My lodge needs a project. That project is rebuilding our lodge to be the cornerstone of my city that it once was. I will do my best to lead my brethren in that direction but I can not do it alone. I need a group of like minded (young-er)men to share in this project. Which brings me to my last subject.
Last Friday my friend, who redesigned my Square and Compasses icon, came by my house for a long overdue old fashioned B.S. session. He is not a mason but is really thinking about joining the craft. He is one of those friends of mine, and there are unfortunately too few, who can sit down with me and discuss all the things about life that should and need to be discussed more often. We need not see each other all the time but when we do get together it is always like we never left off. He has really been enjoying reading my blog and had many questions about the fraternity. We had a great few hours of conversation that seemed to go by in a few minutes. The type of conversation we had is what my dream lodge experience is. Deep thoughts, heady topics all being freely discussed back and forth between brothers and even though he doesn't wear a ring (yet) he is my brother. He lies my problem. If he were to join the order he is unsure of where to petition. There is a lodge a couple of minutes down the road from his house which I know to be a fine lodge and would be convenient for him, yet my lodge is between his work and home. I would love to have one of my best friends sit in lodge with me and I believe we could do some great work but at the same time I have always been a proponent of choosing a lodge that is close to your home. Knowing that he will read this that little bell is going off in my writers mind so I will stop with that thought so as not to effect any decision he makes ;-) It is my obligation to point him to his nearest lodge and it is in my own self interest that I want him in mine.
Anyway if there are any brethren out there with some stories or insight into having a close friend entering into the brotherhood behind them I (and my friend) would love to hear from you.
M.M.M.
We are a lodge with no real home.
We are a lodge who's numbers can only decrease incrementally no matter how many we can bring in.
The men who have held the torch for so long will be vacating important positions and it will be up to me and my contemporaries to run the next leg.
After the New Year I decided to tell my mentor that I was guilty of blogging under a pseudonym. I am really proud of what I have built here and wanted to share with one of my Lodge Brothers my thoughts. It was not an easy decision to make. My semi-anonymity provided a curtain to hide behind so my rants or raves could be pure and uninfluenced by thinking about someone getting offended. It served a purpose but it made me uneasy because I have nothing to hide. The thoughts I have published for the whole wide world to read needed to be entered into the forum of discussion of my lodge. I will freely admit that my disclosure to my mentor has already affected my posting. There have been a couple of things that I would have had no problem sharing before I knew someone at my lodge might read it and know about. Nothing earth shattering or scandalous but as I writer there is now a bell that goes off when I write about mt experiences. C'est la vie.
I am happy that I can now at least have a force on the sidelines knowing what I dream about doing with Old St. John's.
There is much work to be done.
The first thing we need is a crop of candidates who want to rebuild this old group as much as I want to.
For to long it has been up to one man, who like atlas, has carried the great burden of keeping the lodge alive upon his shoulders. He has done everything. He has single handily ran my lodge for a long time because no one else would. Yeah there have been many men who have sat in the East in the past 20 or so years but it seems to me it was much easier for them to allow this one man to do everything for the lodge because no one had a vision for the future of the lodge. St. Johns has always been there and would always be there is an all to common attitude of most of my brethren. Now I do not want for one second to downplay anyone else's contribution to my lodge, but in my 2 years of being at every meeting (but one) there is only one who has captained this ship and has been the chief, cook, and bottle washer for too long. This man happens to be, of course, my mentor.
One of the stories he has repeated to me, and everyone else, on many occasions is of how his fathers lodge back in his home state went dark the day his father died. It is his great fear that if something were to happen to him that the same fate would befall old St. John's. I of course always respond to that story with "You don't have to worry about that anymore because I'm here". My response has never been received with what I expect because the last thing he wants to happen is for me to take his place as the "glue" as he has been called. It is not because he doesn't think I am capable but that he doesn't want me to shoulder all of the responsibility for the next twenty years. "It will break the strongest man" he tells me.
We have discussed on many occasions the fate of our lodge and he is very right in not allowing me to just do everything that I want to do. I would gladly relieve him of the burden but I cant do it alone like he has. I need a team. That is what a lodge is supposed to be.
I received a great response from my Beauty post from Brother Rui Banderia all the way from Portugal and there is one line that sticks out in my head from his comment that really helps with what my lodge needs:
"The important thing is that each Lodge be capable of building its own project. Once that's done, the Lodge identity is established and all the problems (there are always problems) are solved."
My lodge needs a project. That project is rebuilding our lodge to be the cornerstone of my city that it once was. I will do my best to lead my brethren in that direction but I can not do it alone. I need a group of like minded (young-er)men to share in this project. Which brings me to my last subject.
Last Friday my friend, who redesigned my Square and Compasses icon, came by my house for a long overdue old fashioned B.S. session. He is not a mason but is really thinking about joining the craft. He is one of those friends of mine, and there are unfortunately too few, who can sit down with me and discuss all the things about life that should and need to be discussed more often. We need not see each other all the time but when we do get together it is always like we never left off. He has really been enjoying reading my blog and had many questions about the fraternity. We had a great few hours of conversation that seemed to go by in a few minutes. The type of conversation we had is what my dream lodge experience is. Deep thoughts, heady topics all being freely discussed back and forth between brothers and even though he doesn't wear a ring (yet) he is my brother. He lies my problem. If he were to join the order he is unsure of where to petition. There is a lodge a couple of minutes down the road from his house which I know to be a fine lodge and would be convenient for him, yet my lodge is between his work and home. I would love to have one of my best friends sit in lodge with me and I believe we could do some great work but at the same time I have always been a proponent of choosing a lodge that is close to your home. Knowing that he will read this that little bell is going off in my writers mind so I will stop with that thought so as not to effect any decision he makes ;-) It is my obligation to point him to his nearest lodge and it is in my own self interest that I want him in mine.
Anyway if there are any brethren out there with some stories or insight into having a close friend entering into the brotherhood behind them I (and my friend) would love to hear from you.
M.M.M.
Monday, January 7, 2008
I'm Gonna Swing The Hammer
Being an avid reader I could not have chose a better organization to join than Freemasonry. Just type Freemasonry into an Amazon book search and you will come up with 13,986 results! I can freely admit if there is any conspiracy linked to the fraternity it should lead right to Amazon.com. Since joining the craft I have purchased countless amounts of books, pamphlets, and novels with Freemasonry as its topic or somewhere in the title. It is quite a bad habit I have picked up, as soon as I see some book promising more insight into the order, I order! My wonderful wife has yet to say anything to me about this awful habit but I can certainly see that "another book on Freemasonry?" look in her eyes when the UPS driver stops by the house.
I may sound crazy but it is a real thrill.
The plodding research on what book to purchase.
The endorphin rush while clicking order (because of the pain in the wallet area).
The obsessive tracking of the order from the point of origin to my doorstep.
And finally the tearing open of the box or envelope revealing (hopefully) another gem to add to my Masonic Crown Jewels.
Wow!
Each book I have purchased has added to my knowledge of Freemasonry. They have generally served their purpose in shedding more light on the subject of Freemasonry by illuminating some aspect of the history or character of the organization and the men who have in the past belonged to it. Some have gone into detail the symbolic and esoteric aspects of the craft and up until now I have been a conspicuous consumer of such works. It has been my bad habit of buying every book someone mentions on their blog or website for well over a year now and I have come to a decision that it must stop.
Not because I haven't gotten anything from any of these publications, but because recently I had an epiphany about books on Freemasonry and a hammer.
A hammer is a tool, if you don't know, that drives in nails. It also can be used to break apart rocks or punch holes in walls (by accident) or nudge a piece of lumber into place. If you turn it around there are prongs used to remove said nails you drove in if they are not straight or if you put them in the wrong place. They are numerous uses for a hammer. There are also different types of hammers. Hammers come in all shapes and sizes. If you do an Amazon book search for "hammer" you come up with 183,470 books associated with hammer as a subject or somewhere in its title.
I could read all 183, 470 books associated with the hammer and not even come close to what you learn in just ten minutes using a hammer.
A hammer is a tool.
So is Freemasonry.
So this year instead of buying and reading every book I can find on the order I chose to belong to, I am going to just experience what it is to use the tool.
I'm gonna swing the hammer and see what I can make.
Friday, January 4, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Reflected Light
One aspect of light is that it can be reflected and redirected to somewhere where it was not found before. As an avid reader of others blogs I find my self sometimes so moved that I want to share what I read, and now is one of those times. So like the moon I can only redirect a cosmic light that shone somewhere else, but even reflected light illuminates.
Please go to my new found Brother Osiris's blog, Kingdom of Conscience, and read his Masonic Secrets. It is one of the best esoteric pieces of writing on our secrets that I have ever read.
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