I have a great amount of respect and admiration to those within our craft who possess phenominal memorization. I do not have this gift. I have no "medical or phsical reason and resent the idea that I should find another fraternaty. Yes, I can memorize small parts but it takes a great amount of effort for me and I often learn these pa…
I have a great amount of respect and admiration to those within our craft who possess phenominal memorization. I do not have this gift. I have no "medical or phsical reason and resent the idea that I should find another fraternaty. Yes, I can memorize small parts but it takes a great amount of effort for me and I often learn these parts by doing them. I have discovered that I am far from alone in this respect. Look around your lodge for those who sit quietly on the sideline and if you look farther you will find many who no longer attend. Does our lack of memorization skills mean that we should never have become a Mason? Does this mean that the great motto of "making good men better" applies only to those who can memorize and the rest were really never good men in the beginning and should not be made better? I think not. I believe that Masonry is much more than being able to memorize. Those who lack memorization skills should not be penalized and left to sit on the sidelines as a second class Mason but should be encouraged to move forward as we make "good men better". Yes, those of us who lack the great skill of memorization need a lot of help from our betheren to first understand and then to help as we do our work in the lodge using whatever we have to to do our part. I am proud to say that my own lodge possesses great empathy and has done nothing but encourage me and others. The alternative method of proficiancy was a great step forward in bringing in men without memorization skills but I do agree that it should be used maimly as an educational tool and an alternate method of proficiency.
I learned most of my ritual work just by sitting in lodge and mentally reciting the words as the officers recited them. I eventually could do the closing charge without opening the book. Same with the other pillars. This is outside the posting lecture, of course, which I studied really hard to get my proficiency.
We have plenty of brothers that have no desire to learn the work. No one looks down on them or treats them poorly. The difference is, we're not expecting anything out of them other than try and be as best a man and mason as he can be. If someone can't or won't take a chair, that's up to them. Any lodge that treats a brother like you describe sucks as a lodge.
Sitting in Lodge, as you mention, can I think be the easiest of all ways to memorize the ritual.
My own ritual ability has gone up and down through the years. When I was brand spanking new, it was superb. When I was Master of my Lodge it was superb. Then when I became a DDGM and a Grand Lodge Officer I had little occasion to use it, so it fell off. Then covid hit, I didn't sit in Lodge for a year and a half, and I lost most all of it.
Since June, when the Pandemic restrictions were lifted, I've been visiting multiple Lodges a week. I don't open Lodges, and I close them using my own version of Ample Form, but seeing it so frequently, I've got it all back, without any effort, just hearing it over and over again.
Another commenter mentioned his home Lodge meeting once per week. Most of our Lodges meet once per month. I imagine we would all be much better ritualists if we met weekly instead of monthly, and my hunch is that many other things would be improved as well.
I'm in WB Glenn's camp on this one. I also learned the closing charge by memory simply by attending many Lodge meetings, and paying attention to the Worshipful Master reciting the charge (being mindful of what is being said.) Similar to how you wind up memorizing a commercial jingle.
I also agree with Glenn that even though I am blessed to have excellent memorization skills, I don't look down on those who do not. This is a stance I developed in my childhood, when I was scorned by my classmates in grade school as a "weirdo" when I showed my teachers I had memorized the number Pi to 50 decimal places. They treated me with disdain, but I vowed I'd never reciprocate that negative opinion of those classmates. Doing so would only drag me down. I needed to move forward. Eventually my classmates came to respect me for my capabilities, but also for my respecting them for what talents they had as well. When I joined Freemasonry when I was 21, I found that the Brothers quickly learned of my skill and encouraged me to build on it. They also encouraged me to build on other skills that I wasn't so good at.
This is a primary reason why I'm still active in this Fraternity 25 years later.
I have a great amount of respect and admiration to those within our craft who possess phenominal memorization. I do not have this gift. I have no "medical or phsical reason and resent the idea that I should find another fraternaty. Yes, I can memorize small parts but it takes a great amount of effort for me and I often learn these parts by doing them. I have discovered that I am far from alone in this respect. Look around your lodge for those who sit quietly on the sideline and if you look farther you will find many who no longer attend. Does our lack of memorization skills mean that we should never have become a Mason? Does this mean that the great motto of "making good men better" applies only to those who can memorize and the rest were really never good men in the beginning and should not be made better? I think not. I believe that Masonry is much more than being able to memorize. Those who lack memorization skills should not be penalized and left to sit on the sidelines as a second class Mason but should be encouraged to move forward as we make "good men better". Yes, those of us who lack the great skill of memorization need a lot of help from our betheren to first understand and then to help as we do our work in the lodge using whatever we have to to do our part. I am proud to say that my own lodge possesses great empathy and has done nothing but encourage me and others. The alternative method of proficiancy was a great step forward in bringing in men without memorization skills but I do agree that it should be used maimly as an educational tool and an alternate method of proficiency.
I learned most of my ritual work just by sitting in lodge and mentally reciting the words as the officers recited them. I eventually could do the closing charge without opening the book. Same with the other pillars. This is outside the posting lecture, of course, which I studied really hard to get my proficiency.
We have plenty of brothers that have no desire to learn the work. No one looks down on them or treats them poorly. The difference is, we're not expecting anything out of them other than try and be as best a man and mason as he can be. If someone can't or won't take a chair, that's up to them. Any lodge that treats a brother like you describe sucks as a lodge.
Sitting in Lodge, as you mention, can I think be the easiest of all ways to memorize the ritual.
My own ritual ability has gone up and down through the years. When I was brand spanking new, it was superb. When I was Master of my Lodge it was superb. Then when I became a DDGM and a Grand Lodge Officer I had little occasion to use it, so it fell off. Then covid hit, I didn't sit in Lodge for a year and a half, and I lost most all of it.
Since June, when the Pandemic restrictions were lifted, I've been visiting multiple Lodges a week. I don't open Lodges, and I close them using my own version of Ample Form, but seeing it so frequently, I've got it all back, without any effort, just hearing it over and over again.
Another commenter mentioned his home Lodge meeting once per week. Most of our Lodges meet once per month. I imagine we would all be much better ritualists if we met weekly instead of monthly, and my hunch is that many other things would be improved as well.
I'm in WB Glenn's camp on this one. I also learned the closing charge by memory simply by attending many Lodge meetings, and paying attention to the Worshipful Master reciting the charge (being mindful of what is being said.) Similar to how you wind up memorizing a commercial jingle.
I also agree with Glenn that even though I am blessed to have excellent memorization skills, I don't look down on those who do not. This is a stance I developed in my childhood, when I was scorned by my classmates in grade school as a "weirdo" when I showed my teachers I had memorized the number Pi to 50 decimal places. They treated me with disdain, but I vowed I'd never reciprocate that negative opinion of those classmates. Doing so would only drag me down. I needed to move forward. Eventually my classmates came to respect me for my capabilities, but also for my respecting them for what talents they had as well. When I joined Freemasonry when I was 21, I found that the Brothers quickly learned of my skill and encouraged me to build on it. They also encouraged me to build on other skills that I wasn't so good at.
This is a primary reason why I'm still active in this Fraternity 25 years later.
I agree completely Brother