We spent over an hour at our last stated discussing this very topic.
I had read that there are over 50,000 books on Masonry. Now, no one can read 50,000 books, so which ones are right? Which ones are relevent?
I asked each Mason if how they viewed and approached life today was any different from of how they did so 10 or 20, or even 50 years earlier. Each man replied that such was the case.
So we then agree that as we pass over the level of time, our views on life, and how we deal with the challanges. We then explored how the decades of our lives influence us. Graduating school, finding a job, finding a mate, children, the passing of our parents, retirement, and our own ageing all influence our problem solveing skills. From a personal point I mentioned that how I deal with life is significantly different at age nearly 73 then when I was a newly raised Mason at 22.
I then suggested that a very good way to study Masonry is to study the lives of Masons. Really dig into the meat of their lives, the challanges and even the disasters of such men and see if there was any commonality that we might find in our search for understanding.
One of the Brothers is a now retired LtCol who spent time in "The Sandbox". He reported that while there were no Masonic lodges in country, there were Masons, and that they would gather together and talk about Masonic topics. At this point it was getting late so I asked if he would bring that topic forward at our next stated.
The one conclusion for the evening is that a congregation of Masons, all of a wide spectrum of ages, brought prespectives to life that we as individuals would be unlikely to have.Those shared experiences remind of the old African saying; "If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel together. "
Our life experiences define who we are. Either we learn from it and adapt, or we ignore it and probably repeat the same mistakes later. I am not the same man I was 20 years ago. My outlook on life has evolved with time and lessons learned. Some of those lessons were from masonry, some from interactions with others, and some from simple self reflection. Am I perfect? Of course not, I still make mistakes, as we all do. It's the journey to perfection that is important.
We spent over an hour at our last stated discussing this very topic.
I had read that there are over 50,000 books on Masonry. Now, no one can read 50,000 books, so which ones are right? Which ones are relevent?
I asked each Mason if how they viewed and approached life today was any different from of how they did so 10 or 20, or even 50 years earlier. Each man replied that such was the case.
So we then agree that as we pass over the level of time, our views on life, and how we deal with the challanges. We then explored how the decades of our lives influence us. Graduating school, finding a job, finding a mate, children, the passing of our parents, retirement, and our own ageing all influence our problem solveing skills. From a personal point I mentioned that how I deal with life is significantly different at age nearly 73 then when I was a newly raised Mason at 22.
I then suggested that a very good way to study Masonry is to study the lives of Masons. Really dig into the meat of their lives, the challanges and even the disasters of such men and see if there was any commonality that we might find in our search for understanding.
One of the Brothers is a now retired LtCol who spent time in "The Sandbox". He reported that while there were no Masonic lodges in country, there were Masons, and that they would gather together and talk about Masonic topics. At this point it was getting late so I asked if he would bring that topic forward at our next stated.
The one conclusion for the evening is that a congregation of Masons, all of a wide spectrum of ages, brought prespectives to life that we as individuals would be unlikely to have.Those shared experiences remind of the old African saying; "If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel together. "
Our life experiences define who we are. Either we learn from it and adapt, or we ignore it and probably repeat the same mistakes later. I am not the same man I was 20 years ago. My outlook on life has evolved with time and lessons learned. Some of those lessons were from masonry, some from interactions with others, and some from simple self reflection. Am I perfect? Of course not, I still make mistakes, as we all do. It's the journey to perfection that is important.
And your observation would be an excellent lead-in to why "The Perfect is the enemy of The Good."