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From the East,
My Brothers,
Welcome back! Hope all has been well for the beginning of this new year.
We have a few issues which need to be attended to, and Harry S Truman and this Master seek your help. Our Tyler Don Pisany has met with situation that will affect his mobility for a few weeks or months. We will be needing a Tyler until Brother Pisany is well enough to return. If you are interested in this chair, or know someone please contact me ASAP.
The Mason of the Year dinner is dinner is being planned. It is my position to choose this Brother, and I seek your help. As there are many attributes, test and conditions that can be used to choose the candidate, and also the divine dart toss. Is it a brothers ability to do ritual, his work in the lodge and for the lodge, or is it the principles we promote and they live by? Is this candidate the Mason we see in the lodge, or the one the public views? Since the all seeing eye was not part of the investiture, I rely on you in this fraternity to see with a common focus, in this task.
Each of us at some time in our lives have been compelled by law or social pressure to participate in one institution or other. From our childhood we were compelled to go to elementary and high school. The military was for some a choice, and others the law. We are often given religion at an early age. Then there is work and our vocations. Each of these institutions have rules and remedies for no compliance, which compels us to perform, willingly or not!
In running a lodge, the Master often is faced with the fact that the lodge and the fraternity is in fact a volunteer organization. Push too hard and one has an empty room, not a lot available to compel someone to action. In fact none of you are here by anything but choice. A Master runs a lodge based only on the honor and integrity of the men whom have by choice, become Masons.
We have become Masons seeking something. Something attracted you to the craft. Whether you find it or not depends on you! If you entered the craft thinking that Masonry was a spectator sport, or bi-monthly entertainment, you have fallen short and possibly disenchanted over the years.
Masonry has quite a few sayings, that describe character. One is to learn to subdue my passions. As with many of the allegory in the craft we often say the words and avoid the meaning. I will offer a definition to subdue my passions, which in common parlance translates to leave the bad behavior at the door. How often we attempt to find something in our lives that describes and alludes, only to find the same old situation. Only to find the same people, doing the same thing, we have sought to distance ourselves from, who have not learned to subdue their |
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passions, but have found another arena to perform. Bringing the bad attributes of their work and personal lives into the craft. The net effect? You know as well as I, why put myself through that non-sense, I'll stay home! Over time the loud and boisterous are left standing, in an empty room, and then seek a new audience.
The next time you walk away from those whose behavior and actions are non Masonic, they win.
Masonry is a participatory sport. A Master or a Lodge cannot have programs, without support, your support! Not the same ten whom seem to do everything, but this time with YOU. Yes, it is hard to break in to these things, as the ten who do everything, have done so for so long in a way that is easy for them, survival! They have so much to do, they have no time to innovate, or deviate from the norm.
The next time an event is called, and you choose to not attend, because it has been a boring event, the same place, not run well, missing something, whose fault is it really? Remember the secret evasion of mind It comes into play when your help is sort, and your defense mechanism kicks into gear, and you say unavailable, when in fact you could help, refer to the last sentence. Then remember the subdue my passions. Leave the non-sense and defense mechanisms at the door and join in, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. After reviewing the above two concepts, never loosing site of your cable tow.
Fraternally,
W.'.Tony Pecorella
At this meeting the Lodge will be presenting a composite, that is currently hanging in Room 931 from the Harry S Truman family, to the Livingston Library. This composite consists of pictures and a letter from the Truman Family allowing the use of the name Harry S Truman and is an historical piece of work that has to be better protected. There-fore the Lodge will present it to the Livingston Library, on a permanent loan, to be displayed next to the portrait of Harry S Truman that is already displayed in the Library. The library is open to all, and its contents are also available on line, so there will be more of an opportunity for the brothers of the Lodge, as well as the general public, to see it
District Deputy Visits:
HOMECOMING: Thurs. Apr., 17, 2008 Humanities
Calendar of Events::
Save the date:
Sat. May 3, 2008 District Deputy/Staff Officers Dinner Dance...Details to Follow
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