Thirty Two Times Two

Yesterday I did something that I rarely do… I left work a little early for personal reasons. Actually it was for Masonic reasons. Last night I headed back to the Grand Lodge in Philadelphia to ‘complete’ my Scottish Rite degree work. While it is an education that will never end it was a night when I would receive my thirty second degree along with a number of my fellow brothers from my blue lodge (we may have been the most well represented of the lodges in the Valley).

Having gone through the one day class back in April, seeing so many brothers doing degree work all at once was not a strange sight for me. It is actually quite impressive to see so many committed brothers take another step in their Masonic journey. If anything it was an uplifting feeling being part of such a large group of 79 brothers (out of 88 petitioners) advancing at the same time.

I know that this achievement is just the beginning. There are a lot of degrees that I was unable to witness thus far and there are many things that I still need to learn. But the culmination of this first step has put me on good footing so that I can run rather than walk in my Masonic pursuits. How far and how fast will I be able to go I don’t know but I am going to try and make as much progress as possible.

My next planned step is to witness the wide variety of degrees that, so far, I have not been witness to and record my experiences with each and every one of them. I am looking forward not only to experiencing this part of the journey but also sharing it with a number of my fellow brothers. After all, that is part of being a member of this fraternity. We share our Masonic experience with our brothers and support one another in the journey.

It is an amazing sense of pride and accomplishment having gone from a man to a mason to a 32° Scottish Rite Mason in a matter of approximately six months. That’s right that means I received my thirty second degree less than two weeks after my thirty second birthday. And throughout this process I have been greeted, welcomed, and supported as a fellow brother. It just goes to show that, if you put forth the effort and are sincere in our intentions, you will be treated as family and your fellow brothers will stand behind you and beside you as you search for more light.

Time To Embrace My Mountain Heritage (At Least For A Day)!

As I mentioned in my last post, my wife and I have started to take day trips on the weekend to get out of the apartment while spending some time together and exploring places in our state that we have never seen (or haven’t been to in a while). The first of these day excursions was last Saturday, May 25^th, when we drove up the Northeast Extension to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (we were away the weekend prior but it was a trip to New Jersey so that doesn’t count).

Jim Thorpe, formerly Mauch Chunk, is a small town tucked in a valley at the southern most boundaries of the Pocono Mountains. This picturesque village, commonly referred to as the “Switzerland of America” and the "Gateway to the Poconos", is a well known regional tourist destination but with little exposure beyond the tri state area. I consider ourselves very lucky to be only about an hour and fifteen minutes from this mountainous respite.

I have known of this place for some time but never had the chance to drive up there and explore (pretty sad since I have lived in Pennsylvania for most of my life). However, my wife had never even heard the name and didn’t have a clue as to where it was or what was there to see. It didn’t take much to convince her to make the drive… all I had to do was give her the address for the tourism website and a quick click on the YouTube found on the home page.

Early the next morning, my wife woke me up and informed me of our decision to put off cleaning the apartment until Tuesday so that we could spend the day together exploring Jim Thorpe. About an hour later, here was the view of the town as we descended on Route 209S toward the heart of the valley.

After a quick detour to the other side of town and talking with some local residents, we backtracked to the main parking lot along the west bank of the Lehigh River. Given our proximity, our first stop was at the visitor’s center at the old train station where we picked up a map, got a recommendation for lunch, and took a quick look at the train as it was pulling out.

From there we only made it about a block and a half before we stopped for lunch at Bear Appétit. With our stomachs full, it was time to start our lazy walk up and down Broadway where we found this café (which reminded my wife of her sister).

We weaved our way in and out of shops and up and down some of the side streets for a couple of hours before we started to make our way back to the car. Having enjoyed our brief tour of the town, we made one last stop at The Inn at Jim Thorpe before we made it back to the parking lot. It was time to use the gift certificate to BedandBreakfast.com we received from my brother and sister-in-law which had been slowly fading in my wallet for the last six years (no expiration date)! In other words, look for a follow up to this post later this month.

Back in the car, we did a very quick drive by tour of the rest of the town as well as some surrounding communities (you can cover a lot of ground when the speed limit in between is fifty five) with our final stop being the overlook on Flagstaff Mountain where our final picture of the trip was captured.

*Please note that all pictures we taken by my wife during this trip. I look forward to contributing my own photography to future trips and posts.