KILLING THE ARTISTRY OF MASONRY

Rosslyn Chapel. Few buildings are more powerful in the history of Masonic thought than this ubiquitous countryside folly. To dismiss it as architecture built as decoration disguising some other purpose, may simply be easier on the uninitiated than for us.  Let's take a deep breath and begin again. Why are we still killing the talented apprentice that comes along 1:1000?  Let us not quibble about whether we commit the deed.  Let us assume if we can ever agree on the evidence, that there is a satisfactory answer.  What could possibly motivate us to be satisfied that the perpetrator was contrite when this is nothing short of an existential threat.  Has Masonic bureaucracy become swollen? Why yes it has grown probably citing teleological effort; bureaucracy meets the needs of Masonry. So killing off talent is necessary to preserve the integrity of Masonry as we know it? Does this statement explain to you the state we are in today? So worried are we of innovation that we label every creative idea, every innovation, a threat to our integrity.  Does that seem inconsistent with the meritocracy narrative?   It is reasonable to think the pushback of Grand Lodge drives innovation underground leaving behind an approval driven largely by awkward Luddite fears. Louis Leroy the French critic had a point to make when he rejected Claude Monet's painting- Impression, Sunrise as not at all real art but nothing more than impressions. But little did he know, Monet was painting in a new style that was to excite Paris when the audacious unknowns, rejected from a major jury show, rented a gallery and filled it with the work of Renoir, Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Matisse, Pizzaro. Who knew?  We can slowly murder the apprentice but we cannot deny talent. That we actually supported and encouraged the artistry of Masonry, for Leroy would remain an insult to real Masonry. And yet it is part of our narrative.