Your Mark
What do you want it to be?
We are all mortal.
Soon, each of us will die.
And we know not the day in which this will happen.
Given that, I think it is reasonable to ask:
What mark do you want to leave on our world?
What do you want to leave that will outlive you?
There’s a follow-up question too:
Are you on track to getting that done?
I wonder, should we ask these questions of the men who come to us seeking the Degrees of Masonry?
There are a myriad of good answers to them. Answers unique to every man.
But, there’s some wrong answers too.
Should we ask? Would doing so potentially reveal something important about a man’s character? Increase our understanding of him and his motivations?
Let’s chat about it…
We’ve got three really great Masonic events coming up this summer here in Washington. One down in Toledo, one over in Naches, and one in Quilcene. I hope that you can attend one or all three! The details can be found here.
The “mark” I hope to leave when my time comes to travel to that unknown place is for at least one person to say, “He was my brother and my friend, and I’ll miss him”.
When I read the title, I immediately went to the York Rite and the Mark Master degree. While we can consider that, as one way of thinking about a mark, there is a reason to pause.
The reason can be found in the literal way in which operative masonry dealt with that mark. It was used to denote which piece of work was attributed to which stone mason. The degree goes into various mechanisms involved in the use of that mark, which I won't divulge here because it should be experienced by those who wish to pursue the degrees of the Royal Arch.
Rather, I want to discuss the subsequent considerations of the mark. Once the stone is placed in the overall structure, at some point in time, the marks are all covered over with cement. What does that mean?
While the structure might be considered beautiful and well designed and built, a stone mason's mark is not seen. Indeed, he has left his mark on the building. That mark is adorned on all pieces he worked on and those pieces form an integral part of that structure. If the cement should fall off, or be scraped off, the mark can then be seen.
Is it important for the world to see the marks? Does it truly matter that we could see all the different marks? Does it simply tell us that many were involved in the building of the structure? Do we even know who those stone masons were?
It's a little different than the names we see on the walls of memorials. Those names are representing individuals who have sacrificed something for the betterment of humanity or a country, etc. That is a mark that is left for the world to see, and it is likely highlighted what the sacrifice was.
As a result, I pause to reflect on what I think about, relevant to my mark on the world. What do I want it to be? Does it need to be visible or can it be covered over by the cement that unites all who are involved?
Some time back, when I still worked at Microsoft and managed the programs for certification of software developers and database professionals, I began to ask myself if, what I was doing had any real impact. Then, at a conference in Barcelona, Spain, I was approached by a group of attendees, who had come to the conference for education and the ability to engage with employees of Microsoft. One of them said he had to meet me in person and thank me. I asked, "for what?" He said that the certifications that I helped create, offered him a chance to get a job he wanted, and then later, advancement in that career path.
Many years ago, when I still lived in Canada and was teaching post-secondary IT related topics, I had a young man in one of my classes who told me that he had a learning disability and he expected to fail the class on the first go-around. It was a class on computer hardware. At the end of each day, after the students had left, I did some minor thing to his computer that he needed to fix the next day before he could work on the class projects. He passed the class, with above average scores. Two years later, he sent me an email and thanked me for providing those extra challenges for him. He decided that my actions were a catalyst for his ability to find a good job and to be confident in that job.
For me, helping to educate others, to make them better through knowledge, is what I enjoy the most. My life motto is "Learn something new everyday. Knowledge is a light load to carry."
For me, my mark could be the impact I have on other people's lives through education. The world sees the structure (the result), but my mark is not readily visible, unless you scrape the outer surface off.