19.Breakfast and Book

I have missed a number of recent Masonic activities lately, to wit:

• Game Night
• A parade on Memorial Day
• A special communication during which our newest candidates were raised to Master Masons.
• A yard sale

So it goes.  I am especially sorry that I missed the special communication, I want to see the Third Degree again. Also, I want to support the new  members.

Today I managed to get to the breakfast. I did not arrive until around 7:30. Because we were shorthanded, I was recruited to do scrambled eggs. The pressure was on.

Past Master Bob, who has District responsibilities, took me in hand. It truly took me years to learn to cook scrambled eggs properly, but at that, I was not doing industrial levels of production.

The method is thus:

Briefly blend a quantity of eggs  and half that quantity of milk. These proportions make up for inconsistency in eggs size. I do not add milk at home, just a splash of water. Blend them on lowest spend till the milk disappears into the egg. Fry in an electric pan.

May not sound like much but I barely saw the dining room. I moved between my two stations, and as orders came up I put eggs on the plates.

It was hot in the kitchen, and rainy outside. I had the advantage of being near a window, but that was not enough.

Though breakfast runs from 8-10, people arrived after 10:30. When demand finally stopped, I scrubbed dishes.

There is little to call especially Masonic about the breakfast. It is a friendly time, despite the pressure. What distinguishes Freemasonry from other organizations?

Camaraderie exists in most social organizations, I imagine. I belong to one other organization, Toastmasters. The focus differs greatly—I would even say completely—from the Masons. In Toastmasters, we gather to give and hear speeches. Nevertheless, a camaraderie exists, just like with the Masons.

Freemasonry offers the attraction of its rituals. I, personally, enjoy watching and participating in these rituals. York Rites and Scottish Rites offer even more ritual.

The rituals are lessons, if you want to focus on their philosophic aspect. That is, you can join Freemasonry to improve yourself, just as I joined Toastmasters to  improve my ability to speak in public.

Freemasonry offers a regular calendar of social events, some keyed specifically to Freemasonry, like the monthly communications, and some that could been any organization, like the blood drive  or monthly breakfast.

I am reading a book of Freemasonry, The Masonic Myth by Jay Kinney. I could find few books on Masons in my local library network. Most that I saw seemed like rabid exposés of those colluding, controversial Masons. That stuff is just too much for me.

Kinney’s book seems lucidly informative. He is a Mason, but avoids defensiveness and proselytizing.

The history of Freemasonry is just plain murky. There were many antecedents to the current organization. These antecedents were sometimes at odds with each other. This causes confusion and inconsistency. The various wings of the organizations have settled under a single aegis.  To look at all  that as a singular vision of conspiracy is to be ridiculous. I have been a Mason for five months, and actively participated in not one conspiracy. Darn.

I learned prior to reading the book, but Kinney expatiated on the point, that too much is made of the 33 degrees of Masonry. I believe the 33rd degree itself is honorific, but of the others, one only witnesses the ritual of a handful. You get a Cliff Notes version of all the rituals. It takes a few weekend intensives to reach the upper strata of degrees. And to do so does not make you more of a Mason. So there you are. No,  you do it because it interests you.

Tomorrow is the regular communication, and a barbecue.  No  communications during the summer. I think early in the fall we vote on new officers.