STILLNESS

We find ourselves on the outside looking in wondering what went wrong. Masonry gave us a new way of being, of thinking, of realizing our relationships with others likeminded and otherwise.  Has the gestalt changed so much that our rigidity has shone through? Is it us that has brought on the declining interest in an very old fraternal Order or is it that the values on which it is based are no longer as vital as they once were?  Bhuddism isn't a religion but a way of being that embraces all religions.  I don't hear concern about relevance; never a concern about the number of people practicing on a given day being up or down over yesterday.  The only thing I can imagine is that the way we are measuring our progress isn't encorporating the entire picture. It's not plausible for all members of all lodges to be self-aware, but it is a potential we have never dismissed. The basis of this thinking is despite our mistrusting nature, within all humanity rests a desire to connect, to befriend, to protect and even to  suspend disbelief  and have a sense we can control what happens to us tomorrow. The future takes us along with it. We can become opinionated. We can act out our concerns but at the end of the day, understanding provides safety.  How far we reach toward that understanding is a variable we explore just as people have done before us. But to have meaning requires more than imagination, it requires acting on those ideas. Thats where we find charitable acts, done because they are the ehtical thing to do- the right thing.  Today my smart phone can give me quotes from the great minds reminding me what we do what we do, what our thinking says about our relationship with the world around us. Listen. Watch. Silence.  When we have learned self-discipline, we must compare notes and ponder.