Easy? Unvalued.
It isn't supposed to be easy
Climbing Mountains is hard.
Walking a dozen or more miles a day, for days, over rough terrain, with a heavy pack strapped to one’s back is hard.
When I was young, and in shape, and bursting with energy, I used to do those things. I used to do them a lot. Under beating sun, through deep snow. It’s what I did.
I don’t know why, I never understood why, but I loved doing it. Even though the act of doing those things was physical torture.
I didn’t stop doing those things because they were hard.
I stopped doing those things because I got a wife, and a home, and a new car, and all of the expenses that go along with those things. In other words, I stopped not because I lost my love of those things, but because I became an adult with adult responsibilities.
There just wasn’t room in my life to do those things anymore. Unless I wanted to live my life in an irresponsible manner.
There’s a lesson for this in Freemasonry I believe.
Men will value being a part of our Craft, if we make them work to be a part of our Craft.
They don’t love Freemasonry if it is easy, they love it if they have to work for it.
Men value that which they must sacrifice in order to receive.
If something is easy, it makes little impact.
We do well to remember that fact when we look at our Initiation fees. Adjusted for inflation, my Great Grandfather paid thousands of dollars to become a Mason over a century ago. Why today at my Lodge are Initiation fees less than 200 bucks?
We do well to remember it when we look at our proficiency standards as well. Does making proficiency easy lead to a new Mason valuing our Craft, or devaluing it?
And of course this touches upon our West Gate. Why on earth would we make it easy for a man to become a Mason?
Easy is the valueless path.
Men value hard things. Or at least the kind of men Freemasonry needs value hard things.
It’s true, though.
The newer generation is seeking out the tough instructions and critiques. Not crotchety griping, rather suggestions for improvement and admonishments for not maintaining standards.
That, of course, puts the responsibility back on the mentors. WE have to maintain our excellence in what we do. When WE are excellent, the young crowd will emulate us, and if we have anything to say, they WILL listen to us, as long as we maintain the standard.
Back about 2009 or so, one of our Past Deputies needed to take Part ‘B’ of the Proficiency in Lodge Management exam. This involves reciting the ritual needed to open and close a Lodge, call up and down through the degrees and also calling from Labor to Refreshment and back. Out of courtesy as I followed him as Deputy (I was Deputy at the time) I asked how hard did he want me to test him. He wanted it at the level I was working at, as we were both Deputies/Past Deputies. We started at 7:30 PM at the Lodge. I got home around 1 in the morning. There were times where I was starting to get frustrated, but he reminded me that he wanted to do it right, and not to lower my standards. And I didn’t. He did indeed pass.
And the same applied to me. I received my proficiency in the Standard Work in each degree, one at a time, refreshing the previous ones as I tackled the new ones. Three different Deputies, including Cameron. All of them held me to that same Standard, and just like that Past Deputy, it took a while. And it was also frustrating and taxing, but it was worth it.
Iron sharpens iron. The young men are joining our Fraternity for that reason, not to find iron being “sharpened” by plastic butter knives. The “Happy Days” era was cool for its time, but it’s nostalgia. It no longer applies today.
"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value" - Thomas Paine 1776