The house across the street from me recently sold, so currently it is in that process where the old owners fix it up a bit in order to meet the new buyer’s requirements. Or more often, the buyer’s financial company’s requirements.
When I started my day today, I soon realized that it was roofing day, when three big pickups showed up. Two with trailers.
It wasn’t raining this morning, and the roofers proceeded (as all crappy roofers seem to do) to strip the entire roof down to bare plywood.
Whenever I see this, I’m reminded of a few years ago, when a friend and I re-roofed my wife’s grandmother’s house. We did it a section at a time, ensuring that the house had a roof the entire time, either the old one or the new. I remember her complaining about us doing it that way, because it is less efficient, it took quite a bit longer, so we were disrupting her life that much longer.
But, if it rained, her home would have remained dry.
When one lives in the Seattle area, one must assume that rain is never far off.
So, across the street today, the house was stripped down to bare wood really quickly.
Then it started to rain. Hard.
I watched out of my window, for hours, as the rain fell into a roofless living room.
Eventually the roofers got it all covered with that modern stuff that has replaced tar paper underlayment. They didn’t do a very good job of it, I presume because it sucks to work on a roof in the rain.
The thing is, they will finish the roof, tomorrow or the next day I suppose. And no one will see that they did a crappy job with the underlayment. At least not for ten years anyway, when a new roof might be needed.
And someone will come in to the house I presume, patch any water damage and slap on some paint so that no one ever knows that it was raining inside the house.
Quick and easy.
No one but me, and the bad roofers will know that the house was damaged. All of that will be hidden away.
But the house won’t be as good of house as it was before today. Damage can be hidden, but it doesn’t go away. All the new will look pretty, but it won’t be stable and strong.
All of this got me thinking about our Lodges.
Isn’t this exactly what happened with Freemasonry’s explosive growth following the two World Wars?
The doors were thrown open, seemingly to anyone with a pulse. Masons were made by the tens of thousands. They weren’t taught Masonry, for membership growth was the goal. Bigger and fancier Temples, bigger and more far reaching charitable endeavors on an institutional scale, Lodges with thousands of members.
It was sure pretty, seeing all that growth, seeing so many hands sporting big Masonic rings. But we now know that it wasn’t stable and it wasn’t strong.
Today we are in the process of rebuilding our Lodges. Rebuilding Freemasonry.
As we do so, we need to remember that in order to build a strong and stable Masonry, we must build it one Mason at a time. One man receiving our focus, learning Masonry, integrating into our Lodge.
We’ve got to give that one man the best Degrees possible. We’ve got to mentor and educate him. We’ve got to give him compelling reasons to attend Lodge.
If we do these things, he will come. If we continue doing these things, he will bring a friend.
And that will set our Craft on a very solid foundation.
Indeed it is the only thing that can do so.
This is a fantastic story and analogy for so many aspects of life. There is so much damage in institutions and individuals that remains unseen, hidden. Damage wrought not by malevolence, but by faulty priorities and poor planning. Damage that could have been avoided. I appreciate you sharing the thought-provoking piece! And I feel bad for whoever moves into that house!
Excellent analogy. It should be noted that the roofers got to leave when they were done. I suspect the roofs replaced on their own homes were done with more care. It's not that they didn't know how to do it well, they were just going through the motions. Perhaps one of the causes of poor degrees is that they're being done by men from another Lodge, or men otherwise uncommitted to the success of the specific Lodge and simply doing their 'part' in a Degree but not invested otherwise. It may be a controversial opinion, but current Master Masons are more important than candidates in a Lodge. The Lodge experience should cater to their needs and interests, keep them coming back and being invested, so when a Degree is done, it's conducted with care by invested Brothers.