By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Life can be a little daunting sometimes.
There are conflicts around the world that threaten to drag other nations – including our own – into the fight. But it isn’t just conditions abroad that threaten our peace.
I’m not sharing any great secret when I say that politics here at home are about as contentious as they’ve been since the 1860s. It’s almost impossible to discuss any issue, even objectively, without incurring the wrath of the perpetually offended.
At times it almost seems like folks are looking for something to be upset by – and they are determined to be angry with you, no matter what you say or how you frame it.
It’s one of the reasons that I’m convinced joining the fraternity of Freemasonry was one of the best decisions of my adult life.
See, while Freemasonry does require a man to be a person of faith – one who believes in the Grand Architect of the Universe – it does not require a man to belong to a specific sect or denomination. While most, if not all, of my brothers are Christian, the fraternity welcomes Brothers of any faith; so, we may find ourselves breaking bread and engaging in conversation with Brothers who are adherents of Judaism, or Islam, or other faiths that we may know little to nothing about. And while the conflicts between people of different faiths may be the root of much of the strife we find in our world today, the Lodge encourages us to know our Brothers as men first – not as Baptists or Pentecostals, or Muslim or Jew. Not as Democrat or Republican. But as members of our community.
Friends.
Neighbors.
Brothers.
In fact, discussion of politics and religion are expressly prohibited at Lodge meetings.
That’s not why Freemasonry exists. Surely, politicians of various parties have been members of the fraternity – including several founding fathers of our nation like George Washington. Some have even attributed the egalitarian ethos our nation was founded on, in part, to the influence of the Lodge on these great and thoughtful men. But to get too much into that would be to violate my oaths, something I’m not keen to do given the positive force this group has been in my life.
Suffice it to say, Freemasonry is about unity. It’s about responsibility – to yourself, your family, your community.
It’s about seeing and understanding the shortcomings in yourself, and the attributes you want to emulate in your brothers, and working to bring those things to fruition. In simplest terms, it’s about learning to be a better man.
And a better man – or a better woman – is something we should all strive to be.
Because the world is a complicated, and daunting place. There are lots of problems to confront. But before we can endeavor to make the world a better place, we need to work on ourselves. If we can learn to get along, if we can sit down and laugh, and talk, and eat together – not as members of political parties or religious sects, but as men who are all just trying to be better – we’ve already taken that first step.
I’m not 100 percent there yet myself, but that’s the kind of man I want to be. Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
