I had the pleasure to meet a elderly gentleman today who was a neighbor of a family member of mine. He was a very polite fellow, with a good measure of mirth and authority, tempered only by a touch difficulty to hear. In the conversation he dropped that he was 78, but you’d never guess it with the way he handled himself in his yard work.
The conversation started, after a quick exchange of pleasantries, with the innocent question to me of “Who was the Mason?” He had obviously noticed the bold square and compass on the back of my car, and it had intrigued him enough to ask about it.
I replied to him with the short reply that “I was so taken”, something any in the know brother should key in to, but I realized in just a few seconds that he wasn’t so taken, and I replied the it was me, with the elevator speech prepping to roll off my tongue, only to have him interrupt me.
“My dad was a Mason” he said with a fond gleam in his eye. “Yeah, he was a 22nd, or 32nd or something…” “I used to know the handshakes, something he told me never to throw out there, or someone would really lay into me”. I smiled to myself as he said it.
“Yeah, I have his Bible inside”.
“A Blue Masonic Bible?” I asked.
“Yeah, a big one, it was his grand-dads before him, and so on…” he trailed off, wistful again.
“I have all his things from the Masons, I’ve wanted to put into a shadow box for years” he said with a near tone of excitement. “His rings, pins, books, and lots of papers” again with a fond look in his eye.
“He had showed me all of it when I was 5, and he treated it with such reverence.” I could tell he was looking back in time. “I remember it like it was yesterday….” His yesterday trailed off for a few seconds, which I jumped on the memory to ask the question looming over us like a tree.
“So how come you never joined?” It felt like a lead weight on a line being thrown at his feet, but I had to ask.
“Oh, he dropped hints several times over the years, even inviting me to join, but I never took him up on it.” He said sounding almost regretful of the missed opportunities of the path that could of been. “I liked to ride motorcycles and hung with a rough crowd, not the kinds that were the Masons I knew. The Masons were all really good guys, and I didn’t think they would like me hanging with the crowds I ran with.”
“Its funny you should say that,” I said, “there are a lot of guys in the fraternity, including those that have bike clubs.”
“Oh I know, it just wasn’t in my cards to do it I suppose, but I have the fondest memories of my dad being in it.” he trailed off, and turned the conversation to the yard work and other mundane aspects of life.
Besides the obvious pleasure at the conversation, the exchange came to me at a time when I was asking the Great Architect some challenging questions: about life, about the fraternity, and my place in it, and its future. I know the last thing on the list is something bigger than any one person can answer, but its always been a burning question for me as I consider it in the face of my sons who I hope to one day join its ranks.
But what the conversation left me to think about, as I resumed the path of the rest of my day, was rather than simply consider why others would want to join, to take a few minutes and ask myself why did I join? Why did I become a Freemason and did it live up to those expectations? What could I do to make it that way? I’ve personalized it of course, but its a question we can all ask of ourselves. Why did I join Freemasonry?
The man who I had the conversation with didn’t join for what ever reasons, but his father did, and his father’s father did, and they probably had a hope that this, now elderly, gentleman would too. But, he didn’t for what ever reasons he had at the time. His progenitors are not here to ask why they joined, but we can ask ourselves that question.
So why did you decide to join?
I have followed a non-dogmatic, non-sectarian path. That led me to Buddhism. Then my business partner introduced me to freemasonry (despite the fact that I had many relatives and that were masons, they were old school and I did not know what it was, having moved to a remote city early on). After some reading, I realized that freemasonry embodied what I was looking for as well as Buddhism, and it was here and accessible. I joined, and I LOVE it
Whenever I have been asked this question I have answered in the following way:
I first joined because I knew my father (of blessed memory) was a Freemason. And I had learned from a supervisor I had on a college job a bit about Freemasonry.
The more important question, IMO, is why I am still an active Freemason after almost 30 years? The answer to that question is that the experiences I have had and the Brothers I have met have kept me active for this long.
Fraternally,
Bro. Scott Sherman
Massachusetts
Why? The example of my neighbor, who was a Mason, when I was 8 years old. That example and then later in life a business trip to Washington DC and seeing the hand the Craft had in forming this great country; On my return home I looked up the phone number of the Grand Lodge in my state and asked, I pray that my example will be such to inspire another young man to follow the same path.
Complex question. The Age of Enlightenment has always resonated in me, which was probably the biggest factor. My father and both grandfathers were Masons, as well as a dear friend whom I’ve known since I was 16. The thing that finally got me going, though, was reading Pillars of the Earth, which caused things I’d heard about operative and speculative Masonry to make sense. So I googled lodges in my area, went down to meet some of the guys, and loved what I found. The mix of ages, races, and religions all getting along and meeting “on the level” as equals and brothers has been as true as I’d ever dreamed.
I had long, long had an interest in Freemasonry, and I’m descended of a long line of Masons. But in the end, when my old college buddy had joined and was talking to me about it a bit, I thought to myself, “Anything that Steve thinks so well of, and gets so much out of, must be an incredible organization. If it’s good for Steve, I know it would be good for me. I should give it a go.” And I’m absolutely 100% glad I did. I love it.
Why did I become a Freemason…well…hmmm…
That’s a hard question to answer and I’ve contemplated that a lot.
I did not come from a long line of Masons. In fact, as far as I know, I am the first Mason in my family.
Since my early teens I was at odds with the dogmatic and sometimes hypocritical nature of the organized religions that I was exposed to. Freemasonry seemed like a bastion for freethinkers with a non-dogmatic approach to an understanding of God and Spirituality that really attracted me. In addition, I saw in Freemasonry, a long history of noble ideals that I personally aspired to such as Liberty, Integrity, Freedom, Justice, etc.
I wanted to be part of something bigger than me. I wanted to be in the presence of Men that inspired me and that I could respect and trust as my Brother. I wanted to be part of a group that promoted and fought for social change when the injustice of tyranny reared its ugly head.
I would like to think that there is still a part of Freemasonry out there somewhere that, at least partially lives up to my idealistic, and somewhat naive, concept of what Freemasonry was and should be.
I almost forgot the most important part! The crux of the point I was trying to make…
I joined Freemasonry so that I could learn from Inspired and Enlightened Men and their teachings to become a better Husband, Father, Son, Citizen, and overall Man. That is my goal in life and I will seek out every teaching and travel down every road that may lead me to the fulfillment of that goal.