As you know, over the past days, I had to step away from Freemasonry, and Emeth to deal with some difficult family business. Near where I was staying was a fast food restaurant. I wasn’t in much condition to fight traffic or explore around, and the place had excellent food, so I ate there more days than not.
The thing was, I was there at a rather odd time each day. Too late for lunch, too early for dinner, so on most visits, I was the only customer.
But, on one of my final visits, I pulled up, and despite it being the same time of day, the place was quite literally packed. I waited in a long line to order, the parking lot was full of cars, and the small dining room was filled with people.
It took me a moment to realize what was going on, but seeing the food in people’s hands, I remembered that there had been a sign out front for the past few days, promising a free ice cream cone on this particular day. People were there, in droves, for the free ice cream.
The thing was though, it wasn’t exactly free. Yes, the restaurant was giving away free ice cream cones, but in exchange, it was asking for a one dollar donation to Seattle Children’s Hospital. A worthy cause, and in my view, a great thing for the restaurant to do.
I stood in line to order my food, and that took a while, because they were making the ice cream cones. Then, after ordering, I had to wait for my food to be cooked, and that took a while too, because they were making so many ice cream cones.
So I sat and waited, watching as all of these ice cream cones were ordered and taken away.
Here is what I found rather shocking…
Not a single person donated the requested dollar to charity.
These were people of all ages, even the slightly elderly looking well dressed couple that came in for their free ice cream and then took it out to their fancy new luxury car.
Not one would give a buck.
Out of all those people, I also only saw two order anything in addition to their free ice cream.
The whole thing was surprising to me.
But more importantly, it was sad. Quite sad.
Here was a business, working to raise a few bucks for a good cause by giving away one of its products in exchange for a very small donation, and not a single person I saw was willing to donate.
Extreme selfishness is rampant in our society today, and harmful to it.
If no one is willing to work for the betterment of all, our society can’t continue as it has, and we will be in for a very rude collective awakening.
But, I contrast that with Freemasonry, and the Masons I know.
Last Friday night I was able to attend an annual fundraiser held by a Lodge local to me. A fun little event they do each year to raise money that is then used to buy school supplies, school clothes, and Christmas gifts for the poor children in their tiny community.
The event had about twenty-five Masons attend, and those twenty-five Masons gave thousands of dollars.
Seeing the generosity of our Brothers again reminded me of the tremendous will Freemasons have towards helping others and improving our world. It reminded me that not everyone in our society thinks only of himself or herself. It reminded me why I love Freemasonry, and am proud to be a Mason.
Excessive and harmful selfishness comes in a wide variety of forms. It isn’t simply financial as discussed above. We can be selfish with our time, our emotions, our empathy, and our love.
But if we hope to improve ourselves as Masons, and thereby improve the lives of the people closest to us, we must examine ourselves. Are we overly selfish with our money? Our time? Our emotions? Our sympathy? Our love?
If we are, we can improve, as Freemasonry calls on us to do.
As my current Grand Master says so often, ‘know thyself.’
It isn’t just the knowing though, it is also the dedication to continual improvement as we utilize the working tools of our Craft.
First may I say I am sorry to hear about your family problem.
I must have missed what you had said in your last post. The post's stopped I thought I had been knocked off the list . I must say I missed your post's.
Most people don't know what we do to help people out because we never tell anyone. We seem to keep our selfs out of the press but people do come to us for help my lodge has helped a school a lady who's car was hit we got her back on the road. People will always take what is free but never want to help give something back.
It is pretty depressing just how narcissistic and selfish people have become. Very few people give back to their communities. It's all about me me me, and what can I take.