Normal

"We've tried that, and it didn't work." "No one's interested in that." "Those guys haven't been here in so long that we don't even know where they are."

FreemasonFromTheFreestate has ranted about this in the past, but it seems to me that it's the responsibility of those who are active in our Lodges to see to the needs of all, especially those who are inactive. It is a problem. Our records are incomplete when it comes to brothers who haven't been around for a while; no one has time to bring the records up to date; calling the numbers that we have takes time and the ability to handle rejection.

Our population is aging. Many of our missing brothers need help to get anywhere, let alone to Lodge meetings. Those who don't need help to get there, figure that they don't know anyone anymore, and no one cares whether they show up.

I hear from every one I talk to about the dichotomy between how many members are on our roles, and how few show up to meetings, that this is normal.



There's a parable about normalcy that I've illustrated in the two pictures here. They show Betas in a fish bowl. Betas live their whole life in the fish bowl. Some have little castles or plants or divers to make their lives full. They usually don't have other Betas, because they fight. Anyway, Betas live their whole life in this bowl.

They swim around all happy, preening and displaying their colors. They wiggle with happiness when you feed them. They do everything in there. They eat, swim, play with the diver, and poop in there. The more you feed them, the more they poop.



As time goes on, the clear bowl I've shown first, becomes the second bowl. Cloudy, stinky. The fish doesn't wiggle much anymore. He doesn't play with the diver. He doesn't preen or show his colors. He kind of hangs there. Drooping.

Do you know what the fish calls this? He calls it normal.

Third Degree Proficiency

I now know why a stiff interrogation is called, "Getting the third degree." On November 8, I stood for my Third Degree Proficiency. I passed.

It's interesting that when events of this type come up, brothers you didn't know you have show up. How does this word go out? How can we harness this power to get more brothers to regular communications?

I think that's the key word: communication. I know that in our lodge there ain't enough of it. I suspect that it's the case in a lot of lodges. I was looking a websites tonight for the Scottish Rite and York Rite in various jurisdictions. Many of them hadn't been updated this year. There are some great websites that grab your interest and inform really well, but there are many more that aren't doing their job.

There are a lot of us who are retired. This can mean time on our hands. There's a commercial on Public TV in my area that says there is a natural resource out there that can save the planet. That resource is women. Freemasons have a great resource as well. Men with time on their hands, and experience in dealing with people during a long life. Harnessing that resource can drive new life into our lodges and into our life. Into our life because, as we have all experienced, life with friends is much more powerful than life alone.

There's no reason to believe because it's not being done that it can't be done. Find the right resource and use it. We're there. Use us.