I'm Your Friend/Masonic Rant 4/8/08

Just let me know if

ANYONE

messes up your day today!

I GOT YOU COVERED !!




I got the above from Sam yesterday. Sam always brightens my day with an e-mail or two. I met Sam at Acanthus Lodge and he is one of the reasons I like going down there. There are a lot of other reasons. the Brothers of Acanthus Lodge are a great group of guys. Of course there is one there who claims he is in the "witness protection program" and every time I take a picture of him he puts his hand up in front of his face. I have fun trying to catch a snap of him when he isn't looking. I get one or two of them.

I have only been going down there for about a year now (Actually it was on April 10, 2007 that I was voted in) and I have really enjoyed it. For awhile both of my Lodges were very busy and there was degree work almost every week in both lodges. That has kind of dropped off and we are not getting the petitions in Arcadia that we were getting and I am not sure why but Acanthus has not had any either. I haven't been down for a couple of months and I miss it. Last month I had another event to go to and I missed the stated meeting.

They have a meal every Monday night (which is hard on the officers) but I don't go down just to eat as the price of gas is so high and I have to go down there (to Des Moines) at least once a week as it is that I won't go just for a meal. (Unless it would be to eat out if I was invited to go to a nice restaurant for some reason or other.) I get about 17 miles per gallon on my car. It is 35 or 40 miles each was so if you figure 80 miles round trip it costs about $15 every time I go down.

The camaraderie that you feel when you go to Lodge is something that you just don't get anywhere else. There are guys there who I feel very close to. I miss them. I am feeling lonely for them right now. Fortunately I also have that same feeling with the Brothers of Arcadia Lodge but I really don't know why I can't have both.

I see so many guys from all over Des Moines at the York and Scottish Rite and that is one of the reasons I enjoy them. Some people criticize Masons for getting involved in too many Orders. Not me. There is something special about each of them and the guys involved in the York and Scottish Rites are also in their Blue Lodge working. In fact most of the officers of Both of my Lodges belong to both Rites and are also active in them.

So why am I writing this post. I guess to say that if we aren't having degree work in our Lodges we should be doing something else. Mondays at Acanthus and Thursdays at Arcadia. Something should be happening. What? Well we could have a Masonic Book Club and read a Masonic Book such as King Solomon's Builders. Or we could discuss the questions which the Grand Lodge is using with the New Master Mason's Forums. They are good questions. Worthy of discussion in a Lodge. We could have a Mini-Neighborhood meeting and invite Brothers from another Lodge to come over for sandwiches and to get to know one another. Every Brother has a story to tell of how they came into Masonry and listening to those stories is a Lodge Building thing.

We know if we are going to have degree work. Petitions are presented a month out. They lay over for a month before they can be voted on and then the degree work starts. When you have a lot of degrees you are busy and the Brothers get used to coming to Lodge regularly. When you don't have degree work you should have something else going on so that the Brothers don't get out of the habit of attending.

Another idea is a ritual practice. I think it would be good to sit around the table and recite the ritual passing off to each other so that we can become more proficient. There are lots of things we can do other than put on degrees. To be fair some of those things are scheduled. There have been ladies nights at Acanthus and there is a Barbecue picnic scheduled for the second Thursday here at Arcadia. However there are some blanks on the calendar. I kind of think we should fill in those blanks with some "fun"ARTYAL, Hugs, j