Intergenerational Connectivity In Freemasonry

It has been both a long and fast year at the lodge. Last night was the final preparation for those degrees to be conferred in 2014 and it was, again, a great mix of both eager and experienced brothers. It was the kind of night that makes me look forward to the coming year and all the things that we plan on accomplishing.

As the Worshipful Master and I were discussing all that we still had to pull together in this final month, we had two candidates arrive early to learn everything that they needed for their next degree. Soon after, one of our long standing brothers walked through the door and after a few moments of fellowship headed off with one of the candidates to prepare him and impart his masonic wisdom. Given that he has been a mason nearly 50 years and served as Worshipful Master on seven different occasions, there is a lot of wisdom to impart.

While the fellowship and training was happening, I first ducked out to make a few calls and tie up a few things for both the upcoming meeting and the fast approaching blood drive this Saturday (spots are still available). Once I took care of all that I could over the phone (which wasn’t much given that it was after 8:00pm at that point), I headed back into the hall and went back and forth between the two training sessions. Not surprisingly, I found myself stopping and listening to our Masonic veteran as he talked about his experiences in the fraternity and how it has influenced his life beyond the lodge.

For those of us that are still new to the fraternity, this is an invaluable resource and really does accentuate the importance of Freemasonry in our lives. It also demonstrates all that can be accomplished in the fraternity and makes us create our own personal masonic goals. Maybe one of these days we can look back with the same sense of pride at our masonic careers and know that we have continued the tradition and work that our brothers before us worked hard to preserve and accomplish.

After all, we are a part of the history of this fraternity. The work that we do now, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the moment, will carry on through the generations of Masons. We all have similar and slightly different experiences at lodge and in freemasonry in general and we apply those perspectives to help, aid, and assist our fellow brothers no matter if they are still working through the degrees or if they have been a mason for 50+ years. That generational interconnectivity is part of what will continue to strengthen current and future masonic experiences… this is part of what makes good men better.