Five generations ago my family moved from England to a small town in Washington. They bought a bit of land and started farming it. Over the years they purchased more and more land, as the family grew, the fields and herds expanded in order to provide for everyone.
Today that farm still exists. Most of my relatives continue to live and work on it.
But not all.
My generation was the first to have any of the men leave the farm, but while some of my cousins and my brothers have stayed, others of us left to pursue other interests and employment.
I think that in the past, our Lodges could expect many of our members to mirror my own Great Grandfather. He joined Centennial Lodge as a young man, and remained a member until he passed to the Celestial Lodge over fifty years later. Men were able to put down roots and stay.
But times have changed.
Today, a great many men move throughout their lives. I imagine by a far greater percentage than at any previous point in history.
Men move because of employment opportunities. They move because modern dating allows them to fall in love around the country or the world. Increasingly they move because their occupations allow them to be digital nomads. The pandemic has accelerated these trends.
Freemasonry, if we can convince ourselves of it, fits perfectly into the lives of men who move.
Truly worldwide in scope, a man can move anywhere in the world and be instantly connected to his new community through the local Lodge. This is undoubtedly an extremely powerful benefit that can be found nowhere outside of our Fraternity.
Imagine that you are a digital nomad. A fellow who can make his living, with just his laptop from anywhere in the world. You decide that a beach in Mazatlan Mexico might make the perfect office, so you move.
If you weren’t a Freemason, while working from the beach would undoubtedly be nice, you would struggle to make friends and find community. Heck, even getting honest recommendations for good but affordable apartments or restaurants might prove impossible.
If however you were a Freemason, everything would be easier. You could wander into the local Lodge and be instantly welcomed by a large number of Brothers. Men you could count on from day one to give you the local advice that you might benefit from, men who might know about that perfect and cheap apartment or the best steaks in town. You would have men with whom high quality friendships could develop.
It is a difference between being alone, and being surrounded by community. Community no matter where you might be in the world.
As we talk with young men who ask us about Freemasonry, we do well to talk about this powerful benefit. We do well to remind them that no matter where in the world they might find themselves, they will be surrounded by Brothers. I think that our Fraternity has always talked about this in a theoretical sense, but the world is changing, we should instead be talking about it in a practical sense.
We also need to utilize these benefits for ourselves. Even if we ourselves don’t move, we very likely travel. We should include visits to local Lodges in our travels. A trip to Paris might indeed be nice, but how much nicer if that trip to Paris includes a visit to a Parisian Lodge? By visiting we learn that not even language is a barrier to true Masonic fellowship, and we learn things that our own Lodge can benefit from when we return home.
Let’s travel. Across our Districts and around the world, and while we are at it, let’s remind our new Brothers, and those curious about Freemasonry of this powerful ability of finding friends, anywhere in this amazing world.
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It’s in honor of White Socks and Wigs night at Little Falls Lodge. Come and join in the fun this evening:
Friday, March 25
7:00 PM
Centralia Masonic Temple, 218 N. Pearl Street, Centralia WA 98531
Bring between $50 and $100, in singles. A wig, white socks, a garter, plenty of chewing tobacco (or not), and a Lewis County Apron case. It will be a superb time, and two sitting Grand Masters promise to slowly take each of those singles from you.
All to benefit the children of Vader Washington.
Thank you for your support of Emeth!
During the course of my conversations with potential candidates, I always tend to bring up this benefit. While discussing with him the scope of our brotherhood, I'll invariably mention our fraternity is a worldwide organization, one that wherever I am in the world, I could visit a local lodge and be welcomed. I tell them that to not only inform, but to impress. It's especially important to military members, since they will move at least a half dozen times in their career.
It's not just because of jobs, however. Families are making migrations out of states whose politics they don't agree with to find sanctuaries of sanity elsewhere.
I can share that I’ve been able to experience this in a very positive way. Having retired and moved out of the Jurisdiction, then working through Covid, I started attending a lodge near where I live and was accepted as a brother. I immediately felt welcomed and have started developing new friendships.
In the beginning of Freemasonry, Masons that traveled likely stayed in the homes of Brothers where they had an immediate bond and felt safe.