WHEN WE INSPIRE

Like many of you out there, I am grateful for the way masonry has effected me. Adding a touch of old age, that allows me to speak more truthfully and hopefully with decorum, I offer a proposition to change the way we define our relationships and invigorate our priority. Lodges are empty. Attendance is poor. We give pins to old boys who walked away decades ago, as if they did something to contribute in their absence. The main current continues, in one door, out the other. It's a grimy business that we rationalize.  Without solutions we discourage conversations which keeps the cycle going.  So much energy is invested trying to remodel men who show no interest in the study or understanding of masonic methodology. Year by year, variations on the same themes are tried, with the same results. We accept substandard work, we praise rather than encourage. And because we haven't a way to show them the consequences of sloth, we continue to invite that withering mindset into the Craft because they were once as enthusiastic as a first date that ended badly. Our preoccupation with them, flat-lines the heights our committed brethren might achieve had they received the same attention and concern.  So I suggest we do that ourselves. Instead of chasing grown disinterested adults, we show them why we invest by showing the what happens when we apply masonic values, hard team work and imagination.And we never look back. If we put our trust in a virtue, it's time to show the world what we can do when we stop rationalizing and get on with the task.   No mason needs permission to ask questions and to think.  There never has been a box.  Masonry explores. Our learning is discovery. We observe, We listen. We show patience. The others need a change to see it in action. Guilt isn't motivation.