Thanksgiving

Brothers and Sisters,

I know it's late, or is it, what day is it? I know it's late, but the Thanksgiving season has found me more square than ever (and I mean L7), and I've been contemplating what I have to be thankful for.

One thing for sure is that I'm thankful for all of you. For letting me share your thoughts and mine; for accepting me into your life, and for the Craft that we all work in. This has been a revealing and thought provoking year for me, and you all have been part of it.

Thank you all,

Research Tool and Organization

Research Tool and Organization

I'm playing around with a new tool for research and organization.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love gadgets and elaborate stuff that's supposed to make life easier, but usually just clutter things up.

Well, my new one is Personal Brain which is a type of mind mapping tool with a dynamic interface that changes when you focus on a particular node, or thought.  You can link to files, link to webpages, link to calendars, people and images.  You can create documents within the program, and launch such applications as MSWord and others.

This post is being done in Google Documents, which says that it will publish it to my blog.  This is mainly to test that idea.

So, I apologize for not giving my usual deep wise words of wisdom from the depths of wise thought stuff, but this is mainly a test.

Lessons Learned

It's Saturday Night. I've just finished working with the brothers at the Scottish Rite at our reunion, presenting the degrees to our new brothers. I worked as a sound assistant for the PA system for several of the degrees, and I was the Assistant Expert in the 32nd Degree. I worked with a lot of the "White Hats." These are guys who have been awarded the highest degree in Scottish Masonry, the 33rd degree. They are men who have labored long in the quarries, and have been honored with this honorary degree for their contributions.

They were doing the "grunt work," for their new brothers and for the Rite. They were helping people get dressed for the degree work. They were moving props. They were serving hot dogs and cleaning up after meals. They got there at 5:00 am, so we could start at 6:00. They parked cars and served as ushers. Sure, there were others too: Red Hats and Black, and Knights of St. Andrew. The core of the workers wore White Hats.

This was a palpable lesson in Brotherly Love for me, and should have been for anyone watching.

When we are asked to help out,we need to think of these brothers. We need to put our egos on hold, and maybe our interests. What we want to do will come. What we need to do is right there in front of us.

Election 2008

It's now 11:13 p.m. on November 4, 2008. National Public Television has just announced that Senator John McCain has called Senator Barak Obama to concede the election for President of the United States. As we all know this is an historic election in many ways. Senator Obama is the first African American to be elected President in our history. What does this say about our history of division and prejudice in this country? I don't know yet. My son just said, "Hooray for Liberal Guilt!" Is this what this is about? Was this decided on the basis of race? I don't know. I hope not.

In Scottish Rite Freemasonry we are enjoined to be Soldiers of the People. Not to be governed by the cowardly forces of party and division. Senator McCain has just given the best speech of his life, stating his belief in these principles, and that Senator Obama represents a healing of these divisions, and that he, Senator McCain, hopes that he may be able to work with President Obama to bring our country into a greater unity. "Please believe me when I say that no association means more to me than that of being an American. I have been a candidate for the presidency, and now I am once more it's most loyal servant."

We need to pledge ourselves to this same goal, as stated by Senator McCain. That demagoguery and partisan politics must be put aside to make our country as great as its historic potential.