The Treasure Hunt

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Robert H Johnson 32°

It was the night of a big meeting. We had a ton to go over, I had Masonic education and Worshipful had to go over the all the changes which the Grand Lodge wanted to vote on at the next annual meeting. I was feeling a little guilty, you see I was working a ton on the podcast, writing and of course the day job.

The crayon drawn maps.

I wanted to stay home and hang out with my boys, but I just couldn't. I have three sons and the oldest always asks me about the lodge and about the symbols. I think he will definitely become a Brother some day. The other two boys are a little younger. They know when they see the Square and Compasses, that it means "Freemasons".

I was feeling guilty, so I did the best thing I could think of, I created a Masonic treasure hunt in the house. I made a map on construction paper on which I drew a map, wrote out clues, drew some pictures and even put a few Masonically themed items on it.

Since there are three of them, I declared that the search would be for the "Ancient Bubble-Gum of the Select Masters" which was hidden in an "Ark" hidden in the "Secret Core". I sent them all over the house, giving clues to items and places. For instance, the first place they were to find was the "...the door which only height can open." This is the door to the basement which has a shiny sliding lock which is six feet high on the door.

The small "Ark" just big enough for 3
pieces of bubble-gum.

While I was at my meeting discussing the ins and outs of the amendments to codes, discussing circumambulation and talking about the need to adhere to the 6 month rule in regards to a petitioner, they (my sons) were embarking on "the most exciting adventure ever" according to my middle son. When they finally got to the second to last clue, which was "...the fallen ranger points the way to the Secret Core", they had to find the spot where a splayed out pink "Power Ranger" action figure's hand was pointing to.

It was pointing to a white box tucked neatly under the stairs which had the words "Secret Core" on it. Of course the box was just old packaging for a work out system, but they didn't notice that at all. They ran over to the box, climbed up on all the other junk we keep under the stairs and pulled out the box.

The three of them looked at each other and the oldest opens the cardboard "Secret Core" box. Inside was a small "Ark" I built out of balsa wood some time ago. I had engraved some Masonic symbols on it which made it pretty special to the boys. Before they were allowed to open the "Ark" they had to utter the sacred words, which some of you may recognize from "The Day The Earth Stood Still", an old black and white sic-fi movie from 1951, (which I love by the way), "Klaatu Barada Nikto".

They all read the words of the paper and said them in unity. My wife told me it was really "cute". At that point they opened the "Ark" carefully and beheld three unwrapped pieces of the sugariest bubble-gum I could find. The final words on the map "...Brave Select Masters, Chew Wisely".


~RHJ

Bro. Robert Johnson, 32° is the Managing Editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Freemason out of the First North-East District of Illinois. He belongs to Waukegan Lodge No. 78. He is also a member of the York Rite bodies Royal Arch, Cryptic Council, Knights Templar, AMD, The Illinois Lodge of Research and a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Chicago as well as a charter member of the Society of King Solomon, a charity organization run by the Grand Lodge of Illinois. Brother Johnson currently produces and hosts a weekly Podcast (internet radio program) Whence Came You? which focuses on topics relating to Freemasonry. In addition, he produces video shorts focusing on driving interest in the Fraternity and writes original Masonic papers from time to time. He is a husband and father of three. He works full time in the safety industry and is also a photographer on the side as well as an avid home brewer. He is currently working on a book of Masonic essays.

I Have To Write...

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

R.W.B. Michael H. Shirley

I have to write. It’s not so much something I want to do as need to do in order to be fully human. I’m perfectly capable of sitting on my couch, watching recordings of “Restaurant Impossible” and eating ramen, but I don’t like myself much when I do that, so I write. This blog has provided an outlet for it, and I’m grateful, because I recently finished writing a book I’d spent a couple of years on, and the idea of having to come up with a new huge project makes me tired, especially since the semester just started and I have students to teach and papers and tests to grade. So writing short pieces as the mood strikes, with the knowledge that they’ll find an audience, satisfies my writing jones until the next project presents itself. 

The book I just finished, Daily Influences: Meditation for Servant Leaders, grew out of my experiences as Leadership Development chairman for the Grand Lodge of Illinois. I’ve learned over the last few years that positive leadership is not something that’s necessarily based on talent, although talent helps. What matters is a person’s character. A person with bad character can be a very effective leader, but bad character begets bad results. A leader with good character who is equally effective will achieve positive results. Growing as a positive leader doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not something we can do in fits and starts: it’s a daily effort. My book is designed to kick start that effort every day.

I’m pretty busy, so finding time to write was a challenge, but I finally settled into the habit of writing every morning. I didn’t work on the book every day, as I had other things to write too, and I had nine days over the course of a year when I didn’t write, and most of those were when I was on vacation with my family. What mattered was not the amount of writing: it was the habit of writing. Every day, I got up, sat down at the computer, and worked. And it is work. Thinking out what I want to say and how I want to say it is effortful in the best sense of the word. I’ve found, however, that most people don’t look at writing that way.

I’ve been a teacher for nearly thirty years, and have taught writing in some form for most of that time, and I’ve discovered that a lot of my students find writing to be a mysterious and fearful process. They avoid it even when they have to do it, and then bang out some words that meet the minimum required by an assignment, print it up, turn it in, and forget about it. They think writing is a product of words put together to satisfy a form. “How long does it have to be?” they ask. “Long enough to say what you need to say,” I reply. The good writers among them understand that, and start early, drafting and redrafting until they’re satisfied. Most of them, though, have been rewarded for big words, complicated sentences, and passive voice. They write in what Richard Lanham calls “The Official Style,” full of prepositional phrase strings, passive voice, and inexact but inflated words. It’s a nice way for a writer to give the appearance of having said something without actually taking responsibility for it. 

But writing is a form of thought, and unclear writing reflects unclear thought. I work out what I think by writing about it, and in that I’m not alone. H.L. Mencken was once asked what he thought about an issue, and replied, “How would I know? I haven’t written about it yet.” Writing forces me to sit down and wrestle with ideas, figure out where my logic fails, see which thoughts I need to develop more fully, and finally come to some conclusion I’m willing to stand by. It requires me to respond to things, rather than just react, because reacting has no thought involved. If I react, it’s a matter of instinct, rather than volition. To respond requires active thought that leads to a conscious choice. My students often use “I feel” rather than “I think” for two reasons: first, because they don’t know the difference; and, second, because you can’t argue with feelings. It’s an unconscious way of avoiding responsibility for what they say. 

I used to do the same thing, but now I seek to write on purpose, to choose words for their meaning and sound, and to build them into sentences and paragraphs that will bear real weight. I began to be a writer instead of a typist when I saw the English sentence as a noble creation. The late Eudora Welty said it best in her memoir, One Writer’s Beginnings: “I could see the achieved sentence finally standing there, as real, intact and built to stay as the Mississippi State Capitol at the top of my street, where I could walk through it on my way to school and hear underfoot the echo of its marble floor and over me the bell of its rotunda.” The achieved sentence is something I aspire to every time I sit down at the computer or pick up a pen. I sit, and think, and struggle for words. Sometimes they come easily, and sometimes I write three and erase four in an hour. But I’ll keep at it, and hope, when it’s time to stop for the moment, that I’ll have achieved something that’s built to stay. 

So to the readers of this blog, I say “thank you.” If what I do here provides you with something you value, I am truly grateful you found it so. If not, perhaps my blogmates’ work will strike a chord. In either case, I’ll keep writing. I have to.

~MHS

R.W.B. Michael H. Shirley is Assistant Area Deputy Grand Master for the Eastern Area for the Grand Lodge of Illinois A.F. & A.M, as well as a Certified Lodge Instructor and Leadership Development Chairman for the Grand Lodge of Illinois. A Past Master and Life Member of Tuscola Lodge No. 332, a plural member of Island City Lodge No. 330, F & AM, in Minocqua Wisconsin and he is also a member of the Illinois Lodge of Research, the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, Eastern Star, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon. The author of several articles on British history, he teaches at Eastern Illinois University.

Observing The Craft - WB Andrew Hammer

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

W.B. Gregory J. Knott

Observing the Craft was written by WB Andrew Hammer, Past Master of Alexandria-Washington

Lodge No. 22 in Virginia.

This book is a riveting review of Freemasonry in the United States today. Hammer takes on the issues that the craft faces in a direct manner including; ritual, distractions - other Masonic bodies, dress, the festive board, the pursuit of excellence etc.

In all of the issues that he addresses, he advocates that Masons should work with a higher determination to make the Craft all that it is capable of being. Hammer doesn’t pretend that his pathway is the only way for Freemasonry, but rather one of the many that Freemasonry can be practiced with.

I seem to think he is challenging us to consider the origins and true purpose of the craft, to set our aspirations and goals at a much higher standard than many lodges practice today.

According to WB Hammer:

“There are some things in life that cannot be made of a lesser quality nor sold at a lesser price, even if the seller should become less prosperous as a result. A teaching in the Jewish tradition declares that even if there is not one person to worship the Almighty, the value and glory of the Almighty nonetheless remains intact and the Almighty continues to exist. Dear brethren, the value and glory of Freemasonry exists of whether or not we are ten or ten million. Let us not call out the Mystic Angel Freemasonry from the Holy of Holies so that it my abused by the unworthy.”

This book serves as a guide for a Masonic revitalization of your lodge. Be prepared to have your notions of what Freemasonry can be challenged and thus in turn, to challenge yourself to a commitment of self-improvement of the individual and Freemasonry as a whole.

I had the privilege to hear WB Hammer speak at the 2013 banquet of The Masonic Society during Masonic Week. Just as in his writings, as a speaker he does not disappoint.

More information on Observing the Craft may be obtained at WB Hammer’s website observingthecraft.com and his book can be ordered through Amazon.


~GJK

WB Gregory J. Knott is the Past Master of St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 in St. Joseph (IL) and a plural member of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL), and Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL). He's a member of both the Scottish Rite, and the York Rite, and is the Charter Secretary of the Illini High Twelve Club in Champaign-Urbana. He's also a member of the Ansar Shrine (IL) and the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. He holds membership also in The Masonic Society, The Scottish Rite Research Society and the Philalethes Society. Greg is very involved in Boy Scouts--an Eagle Scout himself, he serves the Grand Lodge of Illinois A. F. & A. M. as their representative to the National Association of Masonic Scouters.

The Tenth....

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Robert Johnson 32°

The Midnight Freemasons Blog page has grown by leaps and bounds. At this time we would like to announce the eleventh regular contributor to the Midnight Freemasons. Brother Bill Hosler, PM was made a Master Mason in 2002 in Three Rivers Lodge #733 in Indiana. He served them as Master in 2007 and became a member of the internet committee for Indiana's Grand Lodge. 

Bill is currently a member of Roff Lodge #169 in Roff Oklahoma and Lebanon Lodge #837 in Frisco,Texas. Bill is also a member of the Valley of Fort Wayne Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in Indiana. A typical active Freemason, Bill also served as the High Priest of Fort Wayne's Chapter of the York Rite #19 and was commander of of the Fort Wayne Commandery #4 of the Knight Templar. During all this he also served as the webmaster and magazine editor for the Mizpah Shrine in Fort Wayne Indiana.

Welcome Brother Bill!!

~RHJ