COMFORT IN TROUBLING TIMES

One day Masonry migrated to North America. It took root in Britain and Europe but the stock on which it was based, stretched further back in time and recent memory.  When it landed, it left behind class struggles and a devotion to imperialism. This was the land of revolutionary freedom and optimism and the land fraught with the reality of struggle.  Against that backdrop, there was  something unexpectedly comforting that came with freemasonry that remains with us to this time.  It brought an idea for new immigrants that there was something bigger and unifying out there that brought mankind together. Until relatively recent, we looked back on those times with a protective sense of nostalgia. Those were simpler more perfect times. There is a tendency about truth. It is unrelenting. It is the thing that causes despots and authoritarians to manipulate history to draw out a story that favours them. It is the thing that always prevails.  Those days of innocent perfection, have fallen away as the truth about authority came to light. Racism, abuse, negligence are facts. So too is denial of the disgust, scorn and ridicule.  Masonry may well be one of the most understated anecdotes to alienation in its many forms.  Obsession, intolerance, hurbris, addiction, resignation, they are pushed aside by the messaging of a masonic legend. Hiram brings us a world of possibilities, in which we are free to create opportunities. It shatters myths about small towns and dark cities. It focuses on the best of human values carried in the breast of a good man. New ways of thinking came to North American one day. Masonry continues to influence where it came from and where it goes.  Is that true power?