What is Good?

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Brian L. Pettice, 33˚

“The basic purpose of Freemasonry is to make better men out of good men.” “Masonry is a path to moral goodness.” “Masons are to be good citizens.” “To be good and true is the first lesson we are taught in Masonry.” We’ve all heard and said these statements. These and others were mentioned in recent Masonic Education discussions of the meaning and purpose of Freemasonry at Olive Branch lodge No. 38. The use of the word “good” prompted one Brother to suggest the lodge devote a meeting to discussion of the meaning of the word itself and prompted me to ponder its meaning myself for several weeks.

Last month we held that discussion. We did not reach a satisfactory conclusion of the meaning of the word “good.” Words like honor, integrity, morality, and righteousness were said by the Brethren to be virtues that described the word “good.” These words are all nearly synonymous with each other. Virtue itself is defined as conformity to a standard of right. So does “good” as it applies to men and Masons mean conformity to a standard of right? That is certainly part of it. Conformity to the morals and values prized by Freemasonry is certainly evidence of a man being a “good” man. But does Freemasonry exist merely to reinforce these morals and values in its initiates? Does it exist to teach men what they already know? Is its purpose to increase virtue in already virtuous men? I believe the answer is no.

W. L. Wilmshurst wrote in The Meaning of Masonry, “It is absurd to think that a vast organization like Masonry was ordained merely to teach to grown-up men of the world the symbolical meaning of a few simple builders' tools, or to impress upon us such elementary virtues as temperance and justice: – the children in every village school are taught such things; or to enforce such simple principles of morals as brotherly love, which every church and every religion teaches; or as relief, which is practised quite as much by non-Masons as by us; or of truth, which every infant learns upon its mother's knee. There is surely, too, no need for us to join a secret society to be taught that the volume of the Sacred Law is a fountain of truth and instruction; or to go through the great and elaborate ceremony of the third degree merely to learn that we have each to die. The Craft whose work we are taught to honour with the name of a "science," a "royal art," has surely some larger end in view than merely inculcating the practice of social virtues common to all the world and by no means the monopoly of Freemasons."  What is that larger “end” Wilmshurst speaks of? What is the “science” and the “art?” Volumes have been written on the subject. I have read many. I have learned much and forgotten much. Often I have thought the “end” was close to my grasp only to learn something new that showed me I had much farther to go. Will I find the “end?” I don’t know. I think in my heart I already have, even if I can’t fully comprehend it or put it into words. My journey continues.

But arriving at the larger end, if even possible, is also not what defines “good” in Freemasonry. “Good” in Freemasonry is a journey of self-discovery. It is the willingness to look beyond conformity to a standard of right. It is being prepared in your heart. It is curiosity born of a humility and love that makes a man seek to become more than a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. It is study and meditation and prayer. It is seeing differently. It is opening your mind and heart and soul to the divine spark living in you and everyone around you. It is taking up the lifetime journey to learn and face the truth about yourself and to surrender to the divine love within you. It is building your soul –“the immortal part which survives the death of the body” and “bears the nearest affinity to that supreme intelligence which pervades and animates all nature and can never, no never, die”—filling it with love of God and love of your fellow man. If you travel on this journey, virtue will follow.

Brian L. Pettice, 33° is a Past Master of Anchor Lodge No. 980 and plural member of Olive Branch Lodge No. 38 in Danville, IL and an Honorary Member of a couple of others. He is also an active member of both the York and Scottish Rites. He cherishes the Brothers that have become Friends over the years and is thankful for the opportunities Freemasonry gives and has given him to examine and improve himself, to meet people he might not otherwise have had chance to meet, and to do things he might not otherwise have had chance to do. He is employed as an electrician at the University of Illinois and lives near Alvin, IL with his wife Janet and their son Aidan. He looks forward to sharing the joy the fraternity brings him with others. His email address is aasrmason@gmail.com.

Holes in the Border - An Interesting Parallel

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Steven L. Harrison, 33°, FMLR

Notice: For the next few minutes, put your politics aside. This is published without comment as a scenario from the past with an interesting parallel to today's current events. Once you have read it, take three deep breaths and count to ten before taking it to FaceBook, Twitter, or other anti-social media platform of choice. Thank you. You may now continue reading the article.

The week of February 19-24, 1947, Freemasons convened in Washington, DC, for a series of combined meetings. On Friday of that week, Frank Land, the founder of DeMolay, arranged for a select group of Brothers, mostly Grand Masters, to meet with President Truman. The meeting was more than a formality, given Truman's interest in Masonic affairs.

Truman greeted the Brothers in the Oval Office, beginning with some informal chit-chat and pointing out some of the items there. He said he was somewhat preoccupied, having just received notice his mother, 94-year-old Martha Ellen Young Truman, had fallen and broken her hip.

The group got down to business and the subject of Truman's impending trip to Mexico came up. Masonic relations between Mexico and the US were good, but there were still issues needing to be ironed out. Chief among those were concerns about some of the Spanish Ritual translations. In addition there were Masonic divisions within Mexico itself.

Truman was to meet with Mexico's President Miguel Alemán Valdés. Alemán was a member of City of Mexico Lodge No. 35 and also a Scottish Rite Mason. They asked Truman if he would arrange for himself and Alemán to meet with a group of Mexican Freemasons in the interest of harmony.

Truman declined, saying his agenda was full. "The sole purpose of my trip," he told them, "is to discuss how to patch up the holes in the Mexico-USA border."

Bro. Steve Harrison, 33° , is Past Master of Liberty Lodge #31, Liberty, Missouri. He is also a Fellow and Past Master of the Missouri Lodge of Research. Among his other Masonic memberships are the St. Joseph Missouri Valley of the Scottish Rite, Liberty York Rite bodies, and Moila Shrine. He is also a member and Past Dean of the DeMolay Legion of Honor. Brother Harrison is a regular contributor to the Midnight Freemasons blog as well as several other Masonic publications. Brother Steve was Editor of the Missouri Freemason magazine for a decade and is a regular contributor to the Whence Came You podcast. Born in Indiana, he has a Master's Degree from Indiana University and is retired from a 35 year career in information technology. Steve and his wife Carolyn reside in northwest Missouri. He is the author of dozens of magazine articles and three books: Freemasonry Crosses the Mississippi, Freemasons — Tales From the Craft and Freemasons at Oak Island.

Is This A Degree or A Dressed Rehearsal?

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Robert H. Johnson

This is a warning up front. This article you’re about to read might make some folks a little upset. I’m whispering good counsel right now in the ears [eyes] of all our Masonic readers and I say the following with all due respect.

From the title of this article, you might have guessed what this is about, then again, so many are oblivious to the issue at hand...maybe not. I think the vast majority of Freemasons ought to know what a Masonic Degree should look like, sound like, feel like. Let's explain how the typical work night goes, shall we?

Perhaps a meal, either before or after. The brothers move to the lodge while a few brothers linger, finishing their conversations or maybe just shaking the candidates hand and saying, “Just relax.” or “Hope you’re ready!”. The officers, dressed in their finest wearables, whether tuxedos or Harley shirts and jeans. Brotherly love is in full effect.

The Master of the lodge gavels and the officers take their stations and positions around the lodge. Fast forward through the pledge and the opening ceremony of the lodge. The Master looks around and there are some open spots to fill for the 3rd degree that weren't necessary to fill for the opening, notably, the ever absent Sr. and Jr. Stewards. The Master fills the Sr. Steward's chair with the Secretary and then invites the Tiler to Tile from within the lodge, then promptly has him fill the Jr. Steward’s chair.

As usual, side liners are sparse, but it doesn’t matter. Tonight, is a 3rd degree and nothing is going to impair it. The Master of the lodge decides to announce that there will be no “Standard Work” books open and that there will be just one prompter for the evening. In the event someone gives "the look" to this designated person, they can hit them with the next word and spare the Brother moments which seem like an eternity, when trying to remember a specific phrasing—“Was it Nor or Or?” while the candidate stands there, looking around in a bewildered daze.

The degre begins well enough, a prompt here or there. Fast forward through the first section and a five minute break ensues. Of course the five minute break becomes a ten minute break due to the usual characters stepping outside for a “bad habit”.

The 2nd section begins and it’s as if the Master of the lodge never said anything at all about a prompter. Strategic and thoughtful pauses are met with shouts from across the room, from various men, all giving the next word of the ritual. The brother delivering the verbiage holds a hand up, “I got it. It was a thoughtful pause.” We all wish that’s where it stopped, but we know it doesn’t, don’t we?

The rest of the evening is filled with prompts for directional floor work, loud enough for everyone to hear, including the candidate. “Not that way! Go around!”, “Where is so and so? They need to be in here right now!”, and a slew of other things you’ve all heard before. And just like that, the degree is ruined. It went from a play in progress, to a damned dressed rehearsal. All the action, plus direction, given way too loudly, and being a stickler for minutia that truly matters not. A back hook step in place of a turn in place? Stop the degree and reprimand that brother right there! Show him how it’s done, right now, while the candidate is hanging out right there in the West.

Brothers, during the degree is not the time for correction, full stop. If you’re a guy who’s all about the ritual and you see something that irks you, wait until after the degree to bust the offenders chops or to teach the right way. If we continue to allow this kind of open dialogue and in-degree instruction, we might as well just invite the candidate to the actual practice, let him go through it, then mark him done and move on.

I’ve witnessed this, and so have you. Let’s stop this practice now, before we ruin another man’s experience and embarrass ourselves. It may not be on this night that the candidate realizes what a train wreck his degree was. But if he sticks around long enough, one of two things will happen. He’ll slowly realize that his degree was ruined by some guy shouting instruction the whole night or, and you’ll hope for this one, that he accepts it as the norm.

Was your last work meeting a degree or a dress rehearsal?

~RHJ

RWB, Robert Johnson is the Managing Editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Freemason out of the 1st N.E. District of Illinois. He currently serves as the Secretary of Spes Novum Lodge No. 1183 UD. He is a Past Master of Waukegan Lodge 78 and a Past District Deputy Grand Master for the 1st N.E. District of Illinois. Brother Johnson currently produces and hosts weekly Podcasts (internet radio programs) Whence Came You? & Masonic Radio Theatre which focus on topics relating to Freemasonry. He is also a co-host of The Masonic Roundtable, a Masonic talk show. He is a husband and father of four, works full time in the executive medical industry. He is the co-author of "It's Business Time - Adapting a Corporate Path for Freemasonry" and is currently working on a book of Masonic essays and one on Occult Anatomy to be released soon.

The Coolest Guy I've Ever Known

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Steven L. Harrison, 33°, FMLR

My cousin Bob Davis, a member of Veritas Lodge 608 in Indianapolis, was likely the coolest guy I've ever known. From my earliest memory of him, he was tinkering with cars that were junky heaps of metal and turning them into automotive masterpieces. I was amazed at his drawing abilities – the sketches he drew, to me, belonged in some art gallery. He was an Eagle Scout. A product of the 1950s, he could out-jitterbug any of the kids on the old American Bandstand show. He loved all things Marilyn Monroe and all things James Dean. He turned his basement into a museum of 1950s memorabilia. He took me for rides in his dune-buggy.

Bob was also an accomplished jazz drummer. I'm told he played for many famous acts as they toured through Indianapolis, including playing alongside one of the greatest drummers ever, Buddy Rich. On a couple of occasions, he took me to the smoke-filled nightclubs where he was working. I was way too young to be there, legally or otherwise, but I sure had fun.

If all that wasn't enough, Bob had a job working with Indianapolis 500 race drivers Eddie Sachs and Bobby Marshman, helping them to promote whatever products their celebrity could help sell. The fact he worked with Indy race drivers was alone enough to brand him as the coolest guy in town as far as I was concerned – because if you're a kid growing up in Indianapolis, you're probably a race fan. I certainly was.

As race day dawned in 1964, I'm sure Bob was there not only to cheer on his work-buddies but also to see some of the all-time greats: Jack Brabham, Jimmy Clark, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and the incomparable A.J. Foyt. All the buzz was about a new guy, Dave MacDonald, who was driving a low-slung "car of the future."

The race began, and as the cars crossed the start/finish line at the end of the first lap Bob watched Jimmy Clark in the lead followed by one of his favorites, Bobby Marshman. The cars came around again and Bob followed the two leaders into the first turn. When he turned to see the rest of the field he said he saw something his mind really couldn't process.

Black smoke. Fire. Chaos.

The entire north end of the track was on fire. The ENTIRE north end. Thick smoke billowed up several stories above the track like the mushroom cloud from a nuclear test.

Coming out of turn four, Dave MacDonald in the "car of the future" had spun. His car skidded across the track, hit the inside wall and exploded in a fireball. He ricocheted back across the track where Eddie Sachs plowed into him, his car also exploding.

Eddie Sachs, Bob's friend and arguably the most popular driver at the Speedway at the time, died. Later came word that Dave MacDonald had also been killed.

After the disaster Brother Bob continued to work with Bobby Marshman, but things understandably weren't the same. Then, later that year, the unthinkable happened. Marshman died in yet another fiery crash at the Phoenix Raceway. The events of 1964 stunned Bob to the core.

Brother Bob found other ways to make a living. He was a jack-of-all-trades. He could fix anything. He continued to build custom cars and was a co-founder of the Indianapolis Custom-Car Show held in the huge parking lot next to, what else, a 1950s-style drive-in. The last car he built was a customized 1952 Chevy that was the subject of several magazine articles and won many awards. In later years his business card touted the fact that he and his wife Peggy were "the world's oldest teenagers."

Bob passed away in 2016. His gleaming black custom Chevy sat outside during the services and carried his ashes to his final resting place.

With all his talent and all the things he could do and do well, there was one thing he couldn't do. He never went to another race.

~SLH

Bro. Steve Harrison, 33° , is Past Master of Liberty Lodge #31, Liberty, Missouri. He is also a Fellow and Past Master of the Missouri Lodge of Research. Among his other Masonic memberships are the St. Joseph Missouri Valley of the Scottish Rite, Liberty York Rite bodies, and Moila Shrine. He is also a member and Past Dean of the DeMolay Legion of Honor. Brother Harrison is a regular contributor to the Midnight Freemasonsblog as well as several other Masonic publications. Brother Steve was Editor of the Missouri Freemason magazine for a decade and is a regular contributor to the Whence Came You podcast. Born in Indiana, he has a Master's Degree from Indiana University and is retired from a 35 year career in information technology. Steve and his wife Carolyn reside in northwest Missouri. He is the author of dozens of magazine articles and three books: Freemasonry Crosses the Mississippi, Freemasons — Tales From the Craft and Freemasons at Oak Island.