My particular masonic journey has never been "the norm". I'm not saying that masonic journeys are generally the same or follow a template, but there tends to be some similarities at the beginning. Being required that we all start on the level, we are sent off on our individual destinies from the same starting point, but how we got there, and where we go after we are raised tend to be quite different, and I would say that even with that context, my journey has been quite rewarding and unique.
I was in my forties when I was raised in 1999. I was "in the gap" that existed between the younger generation of new masons and our elder generation. Statistically, in the 1990's, we were initiating men predominantly younger than 30 years old. While not unheard of, it was definitely not typical to start after 40.
My arrival at the west gate was long in coming, but always inevitable. Masonry runs through my father's side of the family all the way back to Scotland and England in 1700's. But since my father passed when I was just under 10 years old, there was no urgency and nothing that propelled the idea of masonry to the forefront of my thoughts; it just hung around my memories, awaiting its time. I eventually joined the Air Force when I was 20 (also later than most, notice the trend?) and took the next 20 years completing a busy military career that required me to move every two or three years.
I found my way to the west gate as this career wound down. I was on my last assignment on active duty, I had decided to settle in San Antonio, and I was active at the time in the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Some friends at my local VFW Post asked if I had ever considered masonry and the rest, as they say is history. It was late in the 1990’s and I was finally prepared to knock upon the door.
I took longer than many to finish my first three degrees. It turned out that being initiated, passed, and raised the same year I retired from the Air Force and began a new professional career as a defense contractor involved a great deal of competition for my time and attention. I eventually satisfied both interests, starting a new professional career and also being raised to master mason in January 1999. I completed all of my necessary masonic preparatory education and settled into my lodge. I was now "on the level" with my brother master masons.
Over the course of the next 23 years, my career as a defense contractor (with a brief interlude as a government civilian employee) took off and ran its course while my masonic journey continued. As with everything else in my life, I found my journey to be somewhat "out of the norm". I served as Junior and Senior Deacon in my home lodge before striking out on an odd path that turned out to be more like an interstate highway with seemingly limitless destinations, entrance and exit ramps, flyovers, detours, and occasional traffic jams. I traveled through the masonic bodies (usually referred to as appendant bodies, but I hate that term) and several related masonic organizations before I eventually finished my progression through the blue lodge line and presided as Worshipful Master in 2015-2016.
And here I find myself today. I will resign my job as a defense contractor and officially retire on May 14th, 2021. I will leave behind the government work I found fascinating and challenging and (hopefully) seize control of my time. The question as I head into my professional sunset is this: what does this mean for my masonic journey? Does it continue on its current path? Or is there a new direction or path awaiting me, forcing a choice in my masonic labors? I am at an important fork in the path of my journey.
I already know the answer to the question and so do many of my close friends and brothers. It is time to direct my focus and energy in a new direction as I cross that plain of time on a spiritual journey that has become the avenue to the knowledge I seek. I have accumulated many books to read, I have questions I want to answer, there is research I want to do, papers to write and programs to offer. Some brothers have seen these next few sentences before and will not be surprised. It is time for me to turn to those unattended interests. Time to read the books, and time to enjoy an Easter Egg hunt for answers to my masonic curiosities and questions. Once I am unburdened by the needs of a professional career, I have two major masonic commitments remaining - the first, to complete my year as District Education Officer for my masonic district, and the second - if duly elected - to fulfill one more year as master of my lodge. Once I complete these obligations I will turn my attention almost fully to this new direction and priorities of my own determination.
My lodge, our lodge, is struggling to come back from the COVID pandemic and all the pain and damage that came with it. I will use my last year in an elective office to do everything in my power to get our lodge back up and fully functioning and then, at the end of that year, I will assume my place on the sideline while our newest generation takes the reigns. It is their time, it is the collective of their combined journey's that will ultimately save the lodge and make it thrive. I will be happy to be able to say to myself one year from now that I have done everything in my power, used everything I've learned along my path to keep our lodge alive. And while my own journey will not be over, it will certainly be on this new path of my own design and choosing.
I have been preparing for this change in direction for almost a year. I have created and published this website and FaceBook Blog ( @AMasonsJourney ) to explore and share my masonic future. I will use these vehicles to provide ideas and as possible guide posts for other brothers in their particular travels, in search of their own ideas, signs, or light.
Yes, I have prepared myself for the reality that my journey is about take this new direction. It will be less visible but I believe it will be deeply interesting and rewarding. It is time. It is where my journey takes me and I must seize the moment and opportunity to follow this new, unexplored path to that as-yet unknown destination.
Bro. Bill Boyd, PM, Valley-Hi Lodge #1407, San Antonio, Texas
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