Our Lodges in Washington have been open for almost a year now, so we have an opportunity to look back on changes that might have resulted from the pandemic.
After being closed for so long did your Lodge undergo changes when it was able to reopen? Have those changes been positive or negative?
Did your own personal Masonic practices change due to the broader disruptions in our society? If you had more time at home were you able to explore Masonry on a deeper level?
Have you made permanent changes in how you live having gone through the pandemic and all of the changes it brought?
On Sunday evening, like all Sundays we will have a gathering over Zoom for all those who hold a paid subscription to Emeth. It’ll be fun and informative, I hope that you are able to join us! 7:30 PM, Pacific time, the link to sign in will go out a few hours prior.
Well, this is certainly a can of worms at least from my perspective.
The pandemic exposed in my opinion the weak minded within our society. Granted, there are many of us that rightfully should have been cautious towards exposure and limited their social interactions with society. It would be up to them to take care of themselves.
But for the rest of us relatively healthy adults living in relatively healthy households, we expected that once the state orders were relaxed, that we'd be able to continue on as normal. Instead, I was unlucky enough to live in a district where fear ran rampant amongst the leaders and continued restrictions were maintained that free men shouldn't have to endure. It resulted (among other factors) in my demitting from my lodge and finding one outside of my district that didn't share the same abject terror of a cold.
I guess I was mistaken that our fraternity, that helped start the american revolution, would be more interested in liberty and freedom than tyrannical despotism.
Am I being harsh? Yeah, probably. But my frustrations were with the entire situation. I refused to wear a mask when I went out, unless it was absolutely necessary (IE, seeing my Doctor). And if I was required to wear a mask to attend lodge, I simply didn't attend.
Did the lodge undergo changes when it was able to reopen? Yes, and not for the better.
Have I made any changes post pandemic? No, as I attempted to maintain my normal life during it, so there wasn't any change to be made.
Some of you might think that I didn't think the virus was real, or didn't result in a lot of sickness and death. No, that was my brother, and he died because of covid and his attitude towards it. I got covid at the same time, and it was a mild cold to me.
But at least we got a good look at the leadership of our fraternity (and society as a whole) and hopefully learned a few lessons from it. Although I suspect the self righteous tyrants will never admit they were wrong.
Sorry, yes, this is an extremely sore subject with me. I thought our fraternity was better than that. At least we elect new leadership every year to mitigate such actions.
“After being closed for so long did your Lodge undergo changes when it was able to reopen? Have those changes been positive or negative?” Of my three Lodges, one of them did continue with the Hybrid meetings. Largely because a couple of our out-of-state members had been diligently attending the Zoom meetings during the shutdown, and a couple of us active members were not interested in shutting out those members once we resumed in-person meetings. There were a couple who were frustrated with learning the technology and were considering throwing in the towel, but in the end, we’re making it work. The most recent meeting went well, with the hybrid, 5 days ago. The other two Lodges? Not so much with the other two Lodges, as Tenino’s building doesn’t have wi-fi, so we don’t have hybrids there. And the other Lodge is undergoing transition.
“Did your own personal Masonic practices change due to the broader disruptions in our society? If you had more time at home were you able to explore Masonry on a deeper level?” Interestingly, as my business was shut down for 2 ½ months two years ago, I did “explore Masonry” in a slightly different manner. I went out and helped some Brothers in my Lodge with outdoor things. Mowing lawns and assistance with yard work, and some mechanic work on a Brother’s pickup. Good way to assist our Brethren in need while still being safe with the contagious virus. While it wasn’t so much diving into books like I did in the decade of the 2000’s, it does follow one of the key tenets (NOT tenants) of our Institution.
“Have you made permanent changes in how you live having gone through the pandemic and all of the changes it brought?” Not really. I had been doing teleconferencing before the pandemic hit, just not at that frequency. It’s back to what it used to be now, maybe a little more. But I will have to admit, after two years of wearing those masks in public, when the mandate got dropped, my Brother and I were heading into a grocery store without masks on, and it felt like I was indecently clothed, kind of like being in public wearing a shirt and nothing else. Of course, that feeling is gone now, but for a while, it was almost disconcerting to realize that I was actually used to wearing that mask in public, and it almost became normal to view the public with partially covered faces. And it became weird when I could see their full faces again. And I live in a county where, as one Brother in Thurston County quipped last year, “if you get caught wearing a mask, you’re likely to get shot!” I love the figure of speech, but I can only imagine how the new habits affected those in more populated areas of the state and country.
The Pandemic simply stole a couple years of my life. I have always figured I could make my own decisions without harming others but having that take imposed on my by political means is tough to stomach. Our Lodges were ever in fear of sidestepping a rule imposed by the State and sometimes simply used that as a crutch to not meet. Anyway, we are slowly returning to normal pre-pandemic but we do have one Lodge that seems stuck on the Pandemic scenario rather working in a positive direction. I ignored the rules halfway through 2020 but adhered to the GM's directives. This was the safe track for a while. Later, while recreating in adjacent North Idaho, no-one was wearing masks and the business and recreation parking lots were full of Washington license plates. This news travels lightning fast and those of us with reasonable BS detectors simply returned to pre-pandemic behaviors unless we had to comply for needed services.
Many of us seemed to be more concerned with the "Agenda" from afar and realized this happened simultaneously worldwide. I hope to avoid anything like this in the future. Our Lodges must work diligently in goal setting and positive discussions to get back on track.
Our Lodges reacted very differently to the 2020 shutdown. One, terribly concerned due to mainstream media news delivery followed the rules carefully and converted their energies to either community service or home duty catchup (Honey do projects). Another just maintained a total slowdown and vegetated. and yet a third, started having committee meetings at a local backwoods bar weekly. These committee meetings were very productive and noisy but tons of really good ideas came forward. And, nobody got sick. The first Lodge lost their Master due to Covid and another in a logging accident on his farm. The loss of these two took away significant energy and decision making capabilities. Also, all the British Columbia Associates were unable to attend anything which was anywhere from 2-5 brothers. The third lodge had a very significant backlog of candidates awaiting first through third degrees and plans to begin work on those was begun in earnest.
Re-opening was slow for the first two Lodges but not for the third. Lodge number one seems to be so accustomed to community service that they seem to talk only of those issues rather than Masonic betterment. This has to change quickly as some members are tiring of all that non-masonic stuff. Lodge number two has picked right where they left off from 2019 and has even performed a first, second, and third on an Enquirer! Fantastic.
My own involvement has been mainly on the telly and Zoom and has kept me very busy as performing Deputy duties has been strange indeed. Zoom saved us though. I am a non-fiction student junkie which kept me very interested in esoterica from our Masonic roots.
I am unsure about long-term effects of the Pandemic but we are certainly changed forever. I believe we will be able to discuss and implement more change due to recent experiences. This will probably be significant.
Well, this is certainly a can of worms at least from my perspective.
The pandemic exposed in my opinion the weak minded within our society. Granted, there are many of us that rightfully should have been cautious towards exposure and limited their social interactions with society. It would be up to them to take care of themselves.
But for the rest of us relatively healthy adults living in relatively healthy households, we expected that once the state orders were relaxed, that we'd be able to continue on as normal. Instead, I was unlucky enough to live in a district where fear ran rampant amongst the leaders and continued restrictions were maintained that free men shouldn't have to endure. It resulted (among other factors) in my demitting from my lodge and finding one outside of my district that didn't share the same abject terror of a cold.
I guess I was mistaken that our fraternity, that helped start the american revolution, would be more interested in liberty and freedom than tyrannical despotism.
Am I being harsh? Yeah, probably. But my frustrations were with the entire situation. I refused to wear a mask when I went out, unless it was absolutely necessary (IE, seeing my Doctor). And if I was required to wear a mask to attend lodge, I simply didn't attend.
Did the lodge undergo changes when it was able to reopen? Yes, and not for the better.
Have I made any changes post pandemic? No, as I attempted to maintain my normal life during it, so there wasn't any change to be made.
Some of you might think that I didn't think the virus was real, or didn't result in a lot of sickness and death. No, that was my brother, and he died because of covid and his attitude towards it. I got covid at the same time, and it was a mild cold to me.
But at least we got a good look at the leadership of our fraternity (and society as a whole) and hopefully learned a few lessons from it. Although I suspect the self righteous tyrants will never admit they were wrong.
Sorry, yes, this is an extremely sore subject with me. I thought our fraternity was better than that. At least we elect new leadership every year to mitigate such actions.
“After being closed for so long did your Lodge undergo changes when it was able to reopen? Have those changes been positive or negative?” Of my three Lodges, one of them did continue with the Hybrid meetings. Largely because a couple of our out-of-state members had been diligently attending the Zoom meetings during the shutdown, and a couple of us active members were not interested in shutting out those members once we resumed in-person meetings. There were a couple who were frustrated with learning the technology and were considering throwing in the towel, but in the end, we’re making it work. The most recent meeting went well, with the hybrid, 5 days ago. The other two Lodges? Not so much with the other two Lodges, as Tenino’s building doesn’t have wi-fi, so we don’t have hybrids there. And the other Lodge is undergoing transition.
“Did your own personal Masonic practices change due to the broader disruptions in our society? If you had more time at home were you able to explore Masonry on a deeper level?” Interestingly, as my business was shut down for 2 ½ months two years ago, I did “explore Masonry” in a slightly different manner. I went out and helped some Brothers in my Lodge with outdoor things. Mowing lawns and assistance with yard work, and some mechanic work on a Brother’s pickup. Good way to assist our Brethren in need while still being safe with the contagious virus. While it wasn’t so much diving into books like I did in the decade of the 2000’s, it does follow one of the key tenets (NOT tenants) of our Institution.
“Have you made permanent changes in how you live having gone through the pandemic and all of the changes it brought?” Not really. I had been doing teleconferencing before the pandemic hit, just not at that frequency. It’s back to what it used to be now, maybe a little more. But I will have to admit, after two years of wearing those masks in public, when the mandate got dropped, my Brother and I were heading into a grocery store without masks on, and it felt like I was indecently clothed, kind of like being in public wearing a shirt and nothing else. Of course, that feeling is gone now, but for a while, it was almost disconcerting to realize that I was actually used to wearing that mask in public, and it almost became normal to view the public with partially covered faces. And it became weird when I could see their full faces again. And I live in a county where, as one Brother in Thurston County quipped last year, “if you get caught wearing a mask, you’re likely to get shot!” I love the figure of speech, but I can only imagine how the new habits affected those in more populated areas of the state and country.
The Pandemic simply stole a couple years of my life. I have always figured I could make my own decisions without harming others but having that take imposed on my by political means is tough to stomach. Our Lodges were ever in fear of sidestepping a rule imposed by the State and sometimes simply used that as a crutch to not meet. Anyway, we are slowly returning to normal pre-pandemic but we do have one Lodge that seems stuck on the Pandemic scenario rather working in a positive direction. I ignored the rules halfway through 2020 but adhered to the GM's directives. This was the safe track for a while. Later, while recreating in adjacent North Idaho, no-one was wearing masks and the business and recreation parking lots were full of Washington license plates. This news travels lightning fast and those of us with reasonable BS detectors simply returned to pre-pandemic behaviors unless we had to comply for needed services.
Many of us seemed to be more concerned with the "Agenda" from afar and realized this happened simultaneously worldwide. I hope to avoid anything like this in the future. Our Lodges must work diligently in goal setting and positive discussions to get back on track.
More from me as I ran short of time earlier.
Our Lodges reacted very differently to the 2020 shutdown. One, terribly concerned due to mainstream media news delivery followed the rules carefully and converted their energies to either community service or home duty catchup (Honey do projects). Another just maintained a total slowdown and vegetated. and yet a third, started having committee meetings at a local backwoods bar weekly. These committee meetings were very productive and noisy but tons of really good ideas came forward. And, nobody got sick. The first Lodge lost their Master due to Covid and another in a logging accident on his farm. The loss of these two took away significant energy and decision making capabilities. Also, all the British Columbia Associates were unable to attend anything which was anywhere from 2-5 brothers. The third lodge had a very significant backlog of candidates awaiting first through third degrees and plans to begin work on those was begun in earnest.
Re-opening was slow for the first two Lodges but not for the third. Lodge number one seems to be so accustomed to community service that they seem to talk only of those issues rather than Masonic betterment. This has to change quickly as some members are tiring of all that non-masonic stuff. Lodge number two has picked right where they left off from 2019 and has even performed a first, second, and third on an Enquirer! Fantastic.
My own involvement has been mainly on the telly and Zoom and has kept me very busy as performing Deputy duties has been strange indeed. Zoom saved us though. I am a non-fiction student junkie which kept me very interested in esoterica from our Masonic roots.
I am unsure about long-term effects of the Pandemic but we are certainly changed forever. I believe we will be able to discuss and implement more change due to recent experiences. This will probably be significant.