The Words We Use
Making everyone feel comfortable in Lodge
I’ve noticed that in the last decade or so, our society has gotten quite sloppy with language. I know that I’m not the only one perceiving this, because I’ve encountered a fair number of writers posting about it, including this morning.
Ultimately I think this is being driven by the extreme political polarization of our times. Each side has such disdain for the other that it is using charged, incorrect, and inflated vocabulary to describe that other. And using language of victimhood to describe itself.
We may not be able to have much of an impact on the broader political discourse in our society, or at least not an immediate impact, but we can ensure that this trend doesn’t impact our Lodges.
And I think that we must.
As Freemasons, we don’t discuss partisan politics within our Lodges. That’s a Landmark of Masonry that serves to preserve the harmony of our Craft.
But lots and lots of us discuss politics in all sorts of other contexts. On social media, during social gatherings, in the parking lot before or after Lodge.
And when we do this, with other Brothers present, I think we have a responsibility to not harm those Brothers good feelings by using charged language. Indeed we must do this if we hope to retain our friendships.
Yes, our feelings run strong from time to time, and yes, we all have a really strong stake in the future of our society.
But we do well to remember that ‘Words Mean Things.’
And that if we use words correctly we have a much lower chance of offending our Brother, even if he strongly disagrees with whatever position we may be advocating for.
That is, I think, a responsibility that we owe our Brother.
By remembering that responsibility we can help to prevent dissention from harming our Lodge.
We’ll never be perfect with this. God knows that I’ve said things that I’ve later regretted, had occasion where I could have done a much better job choosing my words. But I think we owe it to our Brothers, and our Lodges to try. To use care in our language so that we don’t accidentally offend a Brother whom we are not seeking to offend.
That helps to preserve Brotherhood, and isn’t Brotherhood one of the primary drivers for us all to be here?
Rethoric and grammar. No one wants to learn. Is just symbolic they say.
And by that thinking, most missed the most important teachings.
Thank you for a timely and gentle reminder. This is something I have seen in myself of recent and something I certainly need to subdue.