A Poem: The Knife and Fork Degree

The Knife and Fork Degree

by A. J. Disbrow

I don't attend the meetings,

for I've not the time to spare.

But every time they have a feast,

you'll surely find me there.

I cannot help with the degrees,

for I do not know the work.

But I can applaud the speaker,

and handle a knife and fork.

I'm so rusty in the ritual,

that it seems like Greek to me,

But practice has made me perfect,

in the Knife and Fork degree.

A Masonic Table Lodge
Benjamin Franklin Lodge No. 83, MN

A Brother sent this to me, and I'm not sure of its origin--all I had was the name of the author.  I hope Bro. A. J. Disbow doesn't mind my sharing it.  I thought it was pretty funny.  It's long been known that Masons like to eat, in fact, we have something called a "table lodge" that allows us on special occasions to eat while we have our meeting.  Well, in truth, table lodge or not, we eat about every time we meet, almost without exception.  Even if we're getting together on a Saturday to shampoo a carpet in the lodge, I guarantee somebody is going to ask about donuts. 

There is even an organization called High Twelve International that is basically a lunch club for Freemasons and their wives.  A group of us in Urbana-Champaign (home of the University of Illinois) are working on chartering a brand new chapter of this organization called Illini High Twelve.  We're very excited about how it's taken off in just a few months.  So I'm posting this as an ode to the (hopefully) charter members of the Illini High Twelve in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

~TEC