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VWB Bob Jensen Deputy of the Grand Master in District 4 of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Washington for 2001-2003 Mailto: bjjcmj@aol.com 23313 94th Place
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A New Puppy in the Family (February 2003)
Early in December my daughter brought home a new puppy - a Brittany Spaniel, which she had wanted for quite a while. It had no idea of what was expected of it and only knew the things it had learned from its Mother and siblings. Our daughter immediately started training it and took it to classes. Since she was off school in December and early January, she worked with it every day. It is now ten weeks old and still a puppy. It chews on things, wets sometimes, eats and sleeps a lot. It has toys to chew on and play with, but my sock is more fun - sometimes with my foot in it.
It has gotten better about asking to go outside, but our old dog at 13 years is not happy when it wants to sleep and the pup wants to play. Our two cats also have issues with it, and at times they don't get along well. They also are training it to stay away when they stick out their claws. The pup is learning and every week brings more success in the training. In time, it will be a great member of the family and all will be well, I hope.
What has this got to do with Masonry you ask? Well, every time we bring a new member into our Lodges, the same situation exists. The new man does not know what is expected of him, or what he can and cannot do, unless we tell him. Merely explaining the basics at their degrees is not enough. The Alternate Proficiency gives them a lot of great information on Masonry, but if we just give the forms to them and leave them alone, they will not learn what we want them to know about our Lodge, Grand Lodge, our obligations to them and theirs to us. We need to continually work with them, giving guidance and helpful information. We need to take them to other Lodges, get to know their family and they ours, become friends as well as Brothers. I have found the time spent in a car driving to meetings or on a visit to a Canadian Lodges gets us all better acquainted and gives the knowledgeable Mason a chance to teach the new Mason without it being painful. We do need to have knowledgeable Masons work with the candidate, and this is sometimes a problem, as many of our members never really learned that much about Masonry. That is not to say that they are not good Masons, but the information they pass on may be wrong or misleading. I thought the men who taught me ritual in the early 1960's really knew it all. It was not till I received the copy of the Printed Out Ritual last June, that I discovered that I had used two wrong words in the first degree and I probably was doing the same in other places. That is what I was taught and I always considered it correct. I probably taught others the wrong words too. This gets multiplied as each new Mason then works with someone else at a later date.
Like the new puppy, we need to spend time with our new members and see that their questions are really answered properly. It may seem like a lot of work, but our Lodges will benefit greatly in the next few years if we make the effort. It does not hurt to put on a Rusty Mason Degree each year and invite those who have not been out for a while. Put the New Mason on a phone committee and have him be the one on the other end of the "Rusty Mason" when your go through the grips and words. Put the New Mason to work in the kitchen, small parts in degrees, encourage his successes and quietly correct his mistakes. Give him support and show Brotherly Love and Affection and soon you will have a well trained pup who wants to be an active part of your Lodge.
Here's to all the new pups in the world, both human and animal. May their training lead to a lifelong love of life and the fraternity and may they be happy and a great part of the family for a long time.
Thanks to both the Deputy of the Grand Master in District 4, and the Masonic Monitor which publishes his articles for allowing us to reprint them. The Masonic Monitor is published monthly (except August) under approval of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Washington. The Masonic Monitor can be contacted at: 6619 132nd Avenue NE, PMB 237, Kirkland, WA, 98033-8627, USA. Phone: (425) 822-4605 - FAX: (425) 822-2535 - Email: masonicmonitor@earthlink.net.