A Return to the East

I am returning to the East. It was not in my plan, but as they say, "life happens". I go willingly, and I go with a good line up of officers. We have our work cut out for us; pandemic, a lodge burglary, a deep freeze with broken pipes, and an irreparable hot water heater damaged when the city turned off our gas and never told us. But I am encouraged and confident by the officers coming in to office with me later this month. They see the work to be done and have stepped up to accept their respective offices.

I am also looking forward to working with these brothers as they advance their particular journeys. The work on the lodge will provide a wealth of experience, bonding, and opportunities for education and growth. We have an opportunity to build a solid team of brothers who will take this lodge into the future. So yes, we have much work to do, but I am not discouraged.

I had envisioned myself in a different place at this point in my journey. Research, papers, essays, and maybe a book; that is where I thought I would be. I am, in fact, working on two papers at the moment, one a fairly lengthy opinion piece on how societal evolution and masonry affect each other, and the other a relatively short piece that converts my program on "masonic mentoring" into a paper.

I hope to get the mentoring paper out this week (by June 12th) and the society v. masonry paper out by June 30. I think these dates are still realistic, even though I have to assemble my team for the lodge and set us to labor for the new masonic year. I have previously shared my intention that this will be my last lodge office. After this year I plan to turn my attention fully to my research interests and helping our local lodges with their educational questions and needs. While I am by far not the oldest member of my lodge, I am also very far from the youngest. There is a new generation of brothers that need to claim their place in the lineage of masonic history and I hope to help those fine brothers in my lodge take charge of their individual and generational destinies and give real, substantive meaning to the saying "my hat's off to you" my brothers!

S&F

Bro. Bill