Life's unexpected turns have a way of teaching us the most valuable lessons. Fred and I sit down to discuss the twists and turns that have shaped our lives, sharing insights on maintaining integrity and embracing humility through it all. We draw inspiration from the wisdom of great minds like Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin, while I open up about a personal story of loss and the deep lessons learned from it. Our conversation navigates the delicate balance of privacy in personal disputes and how daily practices of prayer and wisdom-seeking can lead to substantial personal growth.
The excitement builds as we preview the not-to-be-missed Masonic symposium under the sunny skies of Sarasota, Florida. Special guests like brother Juan Sepulveda and Shroudaniel Molina are set to share their knowledge, with a surprise guest stirring up even more anticipation. Hear us discuss the profound impact Masonry has on our nation's future and consider joining us for live interviews and festive post-event activities. And for those feeling lucky, we even hint at a raffle for free passes to this enriching event!
In wrapping up our time together, we pay homage to the sacred traditions of Freemasonry, examining the profound significance of grand honors and the etiquette that safeguards our institution's dignity. As we share our commitments to Masonic education and the joy found in ritual work, we invite listeners to experience the unique atmosphere of outdoor Master Mason degrees. And of course, we offer our wholehearted thanks for your feedback, which is the cornerstone of our continuous pursuit to elevate the show. Join us and be inspired to embody the principles of strength and integrity, not just in Masonry, but in all walks of life.
Life's unexpected turns have a way of teaching us the most valuable lessons. Fred and I sit down to discuss the twists and turns that have shaped our lives, sharing insights on maintaining integrity and embracing humility through it all. We draw inspiration from the wisdom of great minds like Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin, while I open up about a personal story of loss and the deep lessons learned from it. Our conversation navigates the delicate balance of privacy in personal disputes and how daily practices of prayer and wisdom-seeking can lead to substantial personal growth.
The excitement builds as we preview the not-to-be-missed Masonic symposium under the sunny skies of Sarasota, Florida. Special guests like brother Juan Sepulveda and Shroudaniel Molina are set to share their knowledge, with a surprise guest stirring up even more anticipation. Hear us discuss the profound impact Masonry has on our nation's future and consider joining us for live interviews and festive post-event activities. And for those feeling lucky, we even hint at a raffle for free passes to this enriching event!
In wrapping up our time together, we pay homage to the sacred traditions of Freemasonry, examining the profound significance of grand honors and the etiquette that safeguards our institution's dignity. As we share our commitments to Masonic education and the joy found in ritual work, we invite listeners to experience the unique atmosphere of outdoor Master Mason degrees. And of course, we offer our wholehearted thanks for your feedback, which is the cornerstone of our continuous pursuit to elevate the show. Join us and be inspired to embody the principles of strength and integrity, not just in Masonry, but in all walks of life.
Hey, chris, yeah, fred, what's a Mason?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question, fred.
Speaker 1:You've reached the internet's home for all things masonry. Join Chris and I as we plumb the depths of our ancient craft, from the common gavel to the trowel. Nothing is off the table, so grab your tools and let's get to work. This is On the Level. Oh no, we're back. Yeah, reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. What?
Speaker 2:Reports of our demise. No, I just I love that statement. It's one of my favorite statements ever. I do like that actually.
Speaker 1:Reports of my death have been greatly over exaggerated.
Speaker 2:That's pretty badass.
Speaker 1:I don't remember what movie that's from? Oh wait, no, I think it was a statement that a politician made back in the 70s, anyway.
Speaker 2:Mark Twain. Mark Twain, did he, it's said to have read his own obituary and then remarked the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. There it is there it is Mark Twain.
Speaker 1:I just quoted Mark Twain, and I didn't even know it.
Speaker 2:What I noticed is we have this new fangled device that makes magic box stuff happen. Okay, and our intro plays in our headset now, before the podcast and maybe that gets me amped up. You all right? Yeah, I love it. We used to just turn it on and be like we're live Right.
Speaker 1:we had to actually be professionals back then.
Speaker 2:Now we can just rock and roll it. Yeah, I like it. I like it. Yeah, amped up.
Speaker 1:This part where, yeah, this works much better. This is the way it's supposed to be. When it comes in, it comes in live, live recorded in the studio. Recorded live in a studio, that's the word there.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So what's going on with you, man? What's new lately, like I don't know?
Speaker 2:Let's see Right Warshville. Tom Haber and I got up to Temple Terrace Lodge.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Met a fan of the show. There were some master, christoph Seville.
Speaker 1:Shout out.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry you couldn't be there.
Speaker 1:I know I huge fan of the show. I apologize, brother, I will make it next time. Got just going through a bunch of different changes right now changes some stuff up for the better in the long run but little difficult right now.
Speaker 2:You talked about that.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 2:Good, good.
Speaker 1:I you know, the more you know it comes back to the same thing. You're given one day at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We are given one day at a time. Now it's smart to make, to save and to have insurance and all that stuff is wise and we want to be wise, you know, in our lives and wise men. But the truth is is that when you wait, if you wake up in the morning, you're given that day in front of you and in that day one should behave correctly. You know you should. You should walk as a man and do what is right throughout the day to the best of your ability, and that's really what I'm being being taught right now. I had all these great plans and ideas, you know I don't know if you guys listened to the last podcast. I walked into work on a Friday and the big Muckity Muck from Fort Myers came up and said, hey, we're, we're firing you and I'm like really why?
Speaker 2:Very good Turn around and walk out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he wanted to just walk away. I didn't let him walk away, but update.
Speaker 2:He thought it was going to be easy.
Speaker 1:He thought it was going to be easy. It was not easy. I I sent him an email subsequently. That wasn't the greatest email, but there was a bunch of truth.
Speaker 2:Bombs Any in that email. Anything happened from that. Yeah, I talked to him. Oh, you did. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And we're good, we're good. He appreciated, you know the truthfulness of it and the heads up. You know that he's not as loved, he's not as beloved as the new CEO and the corporation as he thought he was. So I, I shed a little light on that, but I told him my I, I, I think of what I said is. I stand by the, what I said factually, but the way I delivered it was totally wrong, brother.
Speaker 2:And I, you know it's a. It's a hard thing to catch yourself.
Speaker 1:You know it's important in life to keep short accounts with all of this kind of stuff and it goes. It goes back to what I started out with. Is that you know you have today. You know and I think it was Benjamin Franklin who who kind of had that same idea that he had these. He had these 25 rules that he lived by, that he wrote, he wrote them out and each day he would, he would employ these things in a in his life. You know integrity and you know hard work. Never do this, do that and stuff. And it's just, it's just super important that we keep short accounts If you make a mistake, if you say something that's wrong, if you post. For goodness sakes, please stop posting people, stop posting negative things about your brother online, please.
Speaker 2:Anyway, if you do, as a personal favorite of me, if you email me and say don't show this to anyone, it's on the level, and then I respond and he posted publicly online. It's not good, that's maybe don't do that.
Speaker 1:Maybe, maybe, try not to try. Probably a bad idea. Probably would have been a good idea not to say anything in the first place, but whatever whatever Hypothetically we're speaking here.
Speaker 2:Of course it's the kind of stuff you're talking about, right? It's like come on man.
Speaker 1:So for me, I'm on a personal journey and I've been. I've been praying. I am a man of prayer. I get up very early every day and I study and I and I pray and ask God for wisdom and guidance in my life. And when you do that regularly, the first one that gets the opportunity to change everything is you. And that's what I'm kind of going through right now. God's revealing a lot of things in my life right now that need to change and and I'm willing to do it it's painful. You know the. You know the scriptures say that. You know, don't, don't despise the correction of God because he's treating you as a son, because what father does not discipline their sons right? And then and that's what's happening, and it's grievous and it's tough and it's frustrating as all heck.
Speaker 1:That's how you know it's good for you, but that's how you know that you're a son, you're not illegitimate, you are an adopted son and and your father, who is in heaven, loves you and it's important to respond correctly, respond appropriately and and for me, lately it's really just been again. I just keep going back to this and if you're listening and if this is speaking to you, there's a reason for it. One day at a time, you are given. Today, that's what you're given. You're not promised tomorrow and yesterday's gone. You can't change it today. The moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day is is a good way to live your life before men.
Speaker 2:Benjamin Franklin. I'm reading this quote. He said many people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.
Speaker 1:That's so good.
Speaker 2:Most individuals live life without truly experiencing its full potential or pursuing their passions and dreams. I love that Just go through. You know, following the easy path, Right, but that's not really living is it Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it's pain and sometimes it's hard. Yeah, yeah. And, and as you go, many of the best things are on the other side of pain and hardship, aren't they?
Speaker 1:I would say all of them right, it's not, but it's true. Nothing worth having comes easy. You know nothing, that you're, that you desire, that you value. You didn't get it. You know because it fell in your lap, unless your last name is Rockefeller.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, maybe you got a small five million dollar loan from dad, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh well, that's possible.
Speaker 2:Most of us not.
Speaker 1:I don't think I did. Let me check.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no same here. I didn't even get old socks from my dad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, nothing.
Speaker 2:Which is a blessing in its own. You know you get when you got to make your own way, you learn about life a lot more.
Speaker 1:Well, that's right, that's right, you know it's a blessing for people, for me and people is the thing Lately that's what I'm learning, you know is to forgive as you have been forgiven and love as you have been loved. And you know if you haven't been loved it comes out in the way you treat other people. And you know we all need to take a step back and look at the way. How am I treating people? Am I like manipulating a situation for my benefit, you know, because of some future gain? I don't know? You know, like maybe some big monies coming your way or some kind of thing you're trying to set yourself up for and you got your eyes, you know, on the big prize, but you're discarding the relationships and the people in your life along the way.
Speaker 2:Well, that's going to be a hollow victory.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a hollow victory man, and it's going to be a disaster because by the time you get there, that big prize is going to be nothing but a gigantic idol that you're going to have to bow down to.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And you're going to have people around you and you're going to end up. You know you'll be alone. You'll be alone with your thing.
Speaker 2:You'll be alone, you and your thing.
Speaker 1:Alone, you, your thing and all the devastation around you.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know this has got me thinking. So I was at Temple Terrace Lodge, Right right, right, and they have a past grandmaster there who's their secretary.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Such an awesome fun guy. I mean, I walked in and he's like this is a fun lodge. I was like, yeah, yeah, Welcome to fun country. He's like Masonry should be fun. If you're not having fun with each other, what are we doing?
Speaker 1:here Kind of signed up for fun. I did sign up for fun.
Speaker 2:Oh, the ritual work on point. I don't think they made a single mistake, wow, and they were closing, but they had fun the entire time.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:This is free. Masonry is alive. If they start the program there, they're going to have huge success.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:And I think they are. But where was I going with this?
Speaker 1:Something important.
Speaker 2:It was important. Oh, I was after the meeting asking this past grandmaster hey, why is it that we don't have a chamber of reflection anymore?
Speaker 1:Oh, what is that?
Speaker 2:about and he proceeded to tell me stories and everyone there is telling stories because the guys from the worship, masters from France, they still do. The chamber of reflection Okay Required and this past grandmaster said he kind of had to go through a very similar chamber of reflection and it's great for the EA and I was thinking master Mason would be more appropriate because they already know free Masonry, they won't be as freaked out by something as different as that.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But they all said no, no, the EA should be a little freaked out. That's the point that we want to get that.
Speaker 1:Wake up, guy, wake up, right, yeah, this is weird and scary, pay attention.
Speaker 2:So they were all talking about who's going to put forth the legislation, who's going to do it, and I was like you, me yeah, let's do it, let's do it. I'm serious, we should do this. We should write legislation to submit to Grand Lodge to bring it back. Let's let, on the level, lead the way to bring chamber of reflection back as an optional practice Option.
Speaker 1:Optional, of course, not required, that's right.
Speaker 2:Let a lodge do it. And I mean, a lot of the stuff in our ritual could be scary to somebody. A lot of it could be. Yeah, the reception could be scary. Yeah, think about it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So that, even though it might scare some people, I think if you do it and you have some rules and say it has to be done tastefully and nice and not not intentionally, I'm sure there's a.
Speaker 1:We could dig out the old archives. I'm sure there's a procedure. We have a procedure for everything. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:I think you just got to crab carefully enough and like put the guard rails on the legislation that everyone will prove it. So I say we go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. I don't know how do you do that. Do you know? Is there a process? Okay, anybody out there who's listening, if you understand the process of writing and submitting legislation, shoot me, or Chris, and email and we'll start. We'll start working on it.
Speaker 2:Help us out If you're a lawyer, attorney and you know and you're good with legalese. Yeah, let's get crackle-ackin.
Speaker 1:Let's, let's set a goal that June, middle of June, 2024, we've got something in hand that that we could present. That's plenty of time A six months, a seven, eight months from now. So nobody can say that we didn't you know that we didn't give enough time, but let's start working on it together as as a, as a community, because I just really think the Chamber of Reflection is so needed and so cool and so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited about that. That's going to keep me up at night thinking about doing it All right. All right, we're in, we're doing it All, all we have more going on. We had a great conversation Friday night yesterday about finalizing some of the last details of the education symposium coming up.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:January. We can now, I think, officially announced our ticket cost.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Who the speakers are, yep, and when it's going to be, and within the net by the time you hear this, you should be able to. At the next podcast you hear after this, we'll definitely have links and places you can go to actually get tickets.
Speaker 1:Tell the brother and what they're going to get for their $50.
Speaker 2:Okay, for $50, you will get a free drink at the shrine. All right, that'll include beer, wine or well drinks Excellent. We'll get an on the level and you're to bring home for the symposium. We will get to hear brother Juan Sepulveda talk about Masonry and astronomy.
Speaker 1:His presentation is awesome, by the way. If you've not seen it, you need to see it and you'll hear it.
Speaker 2:We're Shroudaniel Molina. We'll be speaking. Another great speaker. We have a mystery guest speaker. You'll hear from Fred and Chris at the symposium talking about we're going to talk about does.
Speaker 1:The question is does Masonry have something to contribute to the future of this country? I can't wait to hear that. I'm working on it. It's tough, but we'll be ready.
Speaker 2:And we have a keynote speaker. It was Difficult, a very busy man. He's in the middle of doing three installations the day that he speaks for us, so he's going to be presenting in between his installations and taking questions and sitting with us afterwards to talk about Freemasonry. That's right, we're Shroudaniel Molina. I don't know if I said his last name. You better get that right.
Speaker 1:You know who I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:I believe his are granting your award this year.
Speaker 1:Oh, no kidding.
Speaker 2:So he'll be speaking and this will be an event that goes on from 9 am until 6 pm at the Saheb Shrine in Sarasota, Florida.
Speaker 1:Folks are going to get hungry. Tell them all about what we're going to have.
Speaker 2:Beef tips, mashed potatoes, vegetables, caesar salad, dinner rolls with butter, and we'll have some kind of a dessert there, all included for your $50.
Speaker 1:All included for $50. All day education.
Speaker 2:you get a nice all you can eat buffet for lunch. The shrine does have a breakfast buffet that is very cheap, I think it's like 10 bucks, 9.95 or something Also all you can eat buffet. It's outrageous. Yeah, and you'll get your drink ticket. So from 9 to 6 we'll be taking many breaks.
Speaker 2:There'll be plenty of opportunities to get a snack and a little bit of it, but we will have solid speakers and they're each going to speak for an hour and you and I will get to sit down and have one-on-ones with them after they speak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2:We're going to do a little on-the-level live interview with these speakers in front of everybody and we'll culminate in a round table where we all take questions from the crowd. We'll have a real discussion with everybody that comes about free masonry and any of the stuff we talked about, or really whatever anyone wants to talk about, and so this is going to be. We can house about 300 people at the shrine.
Speaker 1:Well, if we were to get 300 there, that would be absolutely off the chain. Awesome, because the fellowship and the camaraderie alone would be just absolutely epic, but anywhere from 100 to 200.
Speaker 2:Hell, even if it's just me and you, we're going to have fun. And you know there's going to be an after party as well, even after party at the shrine they have a full bar Outdoor Tiki Bar. It'll be beautiful weather at this time. It's going to be January 13th. January 13th, from 9 to 6,. Please mark your calendar off.
Speaker 1:Please plan on being there Everybody.
Speaker 2:And spend some time with us. Meet us. We will likely be broadcasting live at points throughout the day, right On the event, talking to people.
Speaker 1:If you're coming in from out of town and you need accommodations, shoot us an email, yes, and we'll work on getting a block or something you know for you. We'll help you put that together.
Speaker 2:If you've got a group that wants to come down. There's lots of space around there, plus I got extra rooms in my house.
Speaker 1:Oh no, don't say that.
Speaker 2:You can help out some people if you needed to.
Speaker 1:Alright, you heard it folks.
Speaker 2:Chris's house is open. It is. I hope you like whiskey though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hope you go ask your wife you might want to tell your wife about this offer you just made to the entire world. She'll love that idea.
Speaker 2:No, no, you're a Mason right, so I can trust you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But this is really exciting. I'm excited, If you guys like it. If this winds up working out, then we have big plans for other things. And if you don't like it we'll go away quietly.
Speaker 1:We'll go away quietly and sulk and come back with something even better.
Speaker 2:But we're all about education and everybody says they want education. So guess what? For 50 bucks you can get Masonic education all day. We have a guest speaker from New York who we're about to lock in, who's going to travel down on his dime because he's so excited about speaking to the brothers.
Speaker 1:What an honor. What an honor. It sounds like it's a done deal. We just can't really announce quite yet. Just waiting for the final confirmation, but if it is true, that's quite an honor.
Speaker 2:We'll probably have a raffle to get your tickets.
Speaker 1:We'll put that together.
Speaker 2:And give away some free tickets to listeners that are interested in coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we want as many people to come as possible. It's not like we're making money on this. We are heart. As you guys know, podcasting is not a financial boon, you're not a millionaire podcasters out there probably.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, unless you're Joe Rogan, right?
Speaker 1:You're not doing it, but our goal is to reach, as you guys know, as many Masons out there with actual masonry, getting everyone excited to go back, pick up your pamphlets that you have collecting dust, go back to your lodge and establish yourself as a brother who wants to see masonry be what it's supposed to be. That's about brotherly affection, it's about relief and it's about truth.
Speaker 2:I love it If you have the fortitude, temperance and a reference with justice, we can get some business done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, right, and then we can answer the question Does masonry have something to offer to this hurting country? I think it does.
Speaker 2:Maybe you can answer it if you come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. How else? What you think that's what this is all about Education is about sitting together and talking through these things and coming up with solutions, perhaps, or direction, or just something that you didn't know before you came and now you know it and it will impact your life and the life of others. That's kind of the whole idea behind all of it.
Speaker 2:And we should give credit where credit's due. We were invited to speak at the Hillsboro Lodge number 25, masonic Education Symposium this year. Was it this year or last year?
Speaker 1:Last year.
Speaker 2:It was last year, 23. 22. We spent all day getting education from some of the same speakers that are coming here and meeting some awesome brothers and we were like, wow, we need more of this.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And we asked them hey, would it be offensive to you if we?
Speaker 1:did something. And they said, of course not, we'd be so excited to see something like this he's one of our, one of our favorite brothers we got to get up there. He's my favorite. Okay, we got to get up there before his term is up and just go for a visit.
Speaker 2:So we'll work on that. We were talking about that. I'm like only four more meetings. He's like stop that, don't talk like that. I'm not coasting.
Speaker 1:He's like I'm hitting the gas baby.
Speaker 2:He'll hit the gas. No coasting here. No coasting right, Right on Right up with your wheels on fire, all busted up at the end of the finish line. You did a good job, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right, hey we got a lot of response from our interview with Wright Warshville Hart. I'm understanding man. I really enjoyed that man. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:The only negative feedback I got is like hey, I didn't even hear his voice till 15 minutes in. I'm like, ah yeah, that's kind of our thing, have you?
Speaker 1:listened to this show, have you?
Speaker 2:Listen to us. I don't hear anything important until after the first 15 minutes. We're at 21 minutes right now. Oh God, damn, we're behind. But yeah, I mean actually we should have him back on because I was so excited to have him here. We didn't even talk about the fact that he went to school for archaeology.
Speaker 1:I know right.
Speaker 2:He's like Indiana Jones in real life. He's Indiana Jones and we didn't even go there. So I would really like to have him back on to talk about his careers as an archaeologist, on the study of man in general. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:He and I have great conversations. We have a lot of differing opinions, he and I, and it's always gentlemanly and scholarly of the discussions, and I so appreciate men like him, you know, who are able to articulate without insult or some sort of rivalry, but for the purpose of education and learning and walking away and remaining brothers, because that's what Masonry is about. We don't all have the same belief structures. We don't have all the same political backgrounds, familial backgrounds. We don't have any of that. What we have in common is a set of principles that are laid out in our ancient craft and it makes it possible for a group of men from diverse backgrounds, from all over the world to actually get something done.
Speaker 1:And for me, that's what makes Masonry special to me. I have never been insulted or turned away because of my particular faith or belief and I have never had occasion, or would I, to do that to any other. It's always been very open and honest and I just want that for the entire state, for the entire country, for the entire idea of Masonry in the modern world. We have got to get away from the old guard idea that Masonry belongs to the guy that's in charge. Or, you know, I'm going to refashion Masonry after my own image. We see a lot of that lately. The whole Texas thing. We talked a lot about the Texas thing.
Speaker 2:You got an update on that don't you. Yeah, do you mind? Yeah, go, I'm going to go out to Brad. Billings one of the main people involved in the situation and he informed me that unfortunately, he cannot speak in detail, in any detail Detail about what's happening in Texas which he did not no, he did not talk to me, even privately, right any details.
Speaker 2:And he said what would be great is their grand lodges in January. He would love to come on the show after grand lodge and talk to us in more detail about the situation. Will happen it because it needs to be in the past for him to talk about it. If it's happening or about to happen. In Texas law states he can't talk about it, yep.
Speaker 2:Not. Not only can he not talk about it, no one around him can talk about it, even the lawyers and then there are lawyers involved, right are not allowed to talk about it. Okay, so he has to wait for it to resolve a grand lodge. We really can't cover this in much more detail than what we have given you, right? Yeah, there's a lockdown on information and free speech in the state of Texas, right, which you know not being from Texas, seems.
Speaker 1:I don't know in bad spirit I'm looking, I'm looking at the situation now and and you know what, you know what isn't happening? A ton of back-and-forth, misinformation and propaganda.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 1:It's a straight-up gag order. You can't talk about it till it's done. Yeah, but then, when it's done, you're free to speak, and that's what. That's what the brother has said. He'll come on the show. And, brother, you are more than welcome. We will make time. You just let us know when. We'd love to hear from you, we'd love to hear from opposing viewpoints. Anything Florida can do, anything otl can do To help Texas become, you know, better masons, we're willing to do man, we're willing to step up and help out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't have a dog in that fight. No, we do not like. Let's report on this almost as if for Masonic reporters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right we're the situation.
Speaker 2:This is what's happening.
Speaker 1:Why not? Can't be any worse than any of the other reporters out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Journalism has fallen on hard times.
Speaker 2:Pretty low there.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:No, we don't have any interest in doing anything other than getting to the bottom of yeah.
Speaker 1:There goes the microphone again. Hello one of the things you guys don't know here in the studio is Chris is an arm waiver man why do I do that? Likes to wave his arms and no one can see him, but he's. He's definitely Animated and usually, sometimes the microphone gets in the way and that happens, but it hasn't happened in a long, long time, so I'm real proud of you. Thank you, thanks.
Speaker 2:I need to bolt this thing down. Yeah, no, that doesn't work either. So, yeah, so that's the update on Texas. We can't get any more info till after January which is only a couple months away. That's yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:All right. So one more thing that I want to talk about is the DC trip. We're going to Washington DC. Otl will be at the Washington gavel. What's it? What's it officially called? It's the gavel presentation.
Speaker 2:Yes, I believe, as well as the installation of that lodge in DC and right the laying of the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier by the master.
Speaker 2:They're gonna randomly pick mason's out of a lottery that attend to help the Grandmaster lay the wreath. We'll be there with the Grandmaster and his entourage and all the brothers from DC. In the lodge the house is the Masonic, the Washington gavel Wow, this is all because of Right, where she'll build cats. A list, shout out who's really Helping us out with this fan of the show and we are a fan of him.
Speaker 2:You if we did interview him. If you want to hear a dynamic Mason that's got passion coming out of his ears, for free, mason, read them, listen to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, good brother You're not inspired by that. I don't know what to tell you if you're not inspired by that, check your pulse, you could be dead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he might be dead. You might be dead inside. He is a very dynamic Mason who cares a lot for the fraternity and really, just like us, wants to see it flourish, right and brought to Heights of glory that it deserves to be brought to in today's broken world. Yep, and he's spreading light outside the state of Florida. He's been working with those brothers from DC to bring the Washington gavel, as we talked about, to Children in Florida and other places in Florida where people can see it and look at it and be in the presence of that historic thing Right from it's no small nation of our country.
Speaker 2:It's a man who fought, you know, for our freedom and independence and and to build this country we live in. That's an item that should be revered by everybody, not just masons.
Speaker 1:That's right, it's a national treasure. It is officially a national treasure and it is guarded as such. Yeah, so it's not something you just kind of take out out of the case and say who checked this thing out? You can't do that. It's. It's official, it's officially sanctioned as a national treasure. So and it is. It's handled accordingly and we're gonna be there to witness, I guess, the presentation of it, the movement of I don't know exactly how it works. I've never done this before.
Speaker 2:I'm so looking forward to this also. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna fly up with the boys and you have other plans Well the other plan is is that John Schaeffer and I shout out Johnny, johnny Schaeffer, dave, a fellow three ruffian, a fellow ruffian Are gonna road trip up from here in Sarah, beautiful Sarasota, florida, up to the event, which Begins November 30th, by the way, and you can go online and get tickets.
Speaker 1:I think there's still room if you want to be a part of the tour bus, but you better get on it because it's gonna sell out fast. It's a big deal, but here he and I are going to Road trip up, and what we want to do, what we're trying to do, is we'd like to use the Amity app to visit lodges along the way, because we're big fans of Amity here at OTL, and we want to use the app to kind of visit Lodges along the way and and, and, and you know, showcase the power of this, of this app, and and what it can do. So we're looking forward to that. We're gonna we've got the GoPro ready, we've got video ready, we're gonna just we're gonna make it a Masonic journey from beautiful Sarasota Florida to what, what promises to be probably a Chile, richmond, virginia area. So we'll have to bundle up.
Speaker 1:We can't wear our sandals and our t-shirts like we like to do here in Florida, but it's gonna be a great time If you're going. Shout out to us. We want to see you there. We want, we want to. We want to give you a hug.
Speaker 2:And you want you on the show. We're gonna be live all throughout.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we absolutely are. It's gonna be. It's gonna be a great time. We're gonna make a big deal of it. That's and I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2:Thursday, november 29th is when most people are arriving, so that evening they'll be drawing names to the wreath laying ceremony and they'll be right in the that night. Friday morning we're busing to the cemetery do the wreath, laying the trolley. We'll have dinner lunch at the Capitol Saturday you say lunch at the Capitol? Yeah, wow, yeah, yeah, and we'll be touring the temple, the Scottish right temple, they're right, yeah we'll have a private tour as part of this trip.
Speaker 2:Saturday afternoon will be installing the officers of Potomac Lodge, number five. Their installation starts at three. They have an after party at six that will be attending, and then Sunday is a little bit of free time so we'll be broadcasting and interviewing brothers from Potomac Lodge, our brothers coming up there, maybe the Grandmaster and some of our grand launch that are there that would be an honor. Obviously, bill Cattiless will be oh yeah with us. So, yeah, this is gonna be super exciting. I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, looking forward to it. So mark your calendars. It's gonna be the last weekend in November this month, so coming up quick. So if you're gonna make it, get, get it done. Get on it, get it done. Let us know if we can help. All right, what else, man? What else? What's going on in the world? I, I don't know in the world.
Speaker 2:I don't know nothing. It's quiet out there, it's really quiet out there.
Speaker 1:Everything's worse.
Speaker 2:Everyone likes each other.
Speaker 1:Everything is awesome we have no problems here at home.
Speaker 2:Everything's great yeah. Yeah, no, it's not that there's a lot going on out there in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of anxiety, lot of fear. Yeah, I again. I think that fear sells. You know, if you're a gigantic, over bloated government system, having everybody a little bit afraid is probably an advantage for you. I am not afraid. That's probably one of my problems that I've had. I'm not really afraid of anything and Probably should other than I fear God. You know and and and and that side of my life, but I fear no man and I I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker 2:But I'm the opposite. I'm pretty, I'm pretty afraid, I'm scared.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think this nuclear situation is the most terrifying thing we're dealing with. My my wife is 15 years younger than me. Okay so she's shocked when I tell her of the nuclear drills we used to do in high school.
Speaker 1:Oh right, okay, you did those. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2:They were like okay, kids, get under your desk, cover your heads. Right, we're about to get vaporized. I guess we're just gonna. We want to go out like the Pompeii people just covered up under our desk. I don't know it. Looking back, it was silly. If a nuclear strike happens, that ain't gonna help Of course not.
Speaker 2:No, but it did help one thing oh, go ahead, go ahead. She's shocked that we used to do that in school, right, we did all do that in school. We grew up with that fear of the Cold War that we had missiles pointed us. We had missiles pointed at Russia, and then it kind of went away and it wasn't a thing people talked about for a long time or feared that much. But now we're back to escalating globally our nuclear arsenals. Everyone's making faster, bigger bombs, 100 times more powerful, 200. I'm like, geez, how this is scary for, I think, us as a species that we are so intent on making these weapons that can wipe us all out, all of us. It's not like just your enemies. All of us get wiped out.
Speaker 1:Well, that that's the theory. That's the theory that mutual destruction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the somehow that's a good thing and some people's well.
Speaker 1:Mutual destruction is the fear that if, if there's no reason to do it because you're just, you might as well Just light the thing off in your own front yard, because if we send it your way, you're gonna send it our way. Right, and there's that mutual destruction, but that's yes.
Speaker 1:That's a theory that I that I hold to. But here's the problem. We now have countries that really don't care if you blow them up. There we're getting to the point where a nuclear weapon, and an actual deployable nuclear weapon, is Obtainable, sure, by other nation states that may not be as sensible.
Speaker 2:But if they have, if they don't see a hope of the future, then what do they have to lose, right or the or they have some sort of broken religious viewpoint that this is the will of God.
Speaker 1:Again, that they, you know have.
Speaker 2:They don't see a path into the future. You know, for whatever reason, right the better future is to be dead. Then it's scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's in this that's nihilistic, you know, to the core. But here's the thing. I Know that the the actual threat, and this is might be a little controversial, but the actual rule and listening closer of nuclear war In the 70s was not as as close as they would have you believe. Like you said, having children duck and cover under their desks is is ridiculous in Concept, because a nuclear weapon is not going to save you if you're under your desk or not, but it did do a lot to to drive fear.
Speaker 1:Yeah into the hearts and minds of children who grew up Like Chris and I, who now, who grew up to believe that, you know, the only thing keeping us from nuclear Annihilation is this great government that has all this great money and power. Not so much money anymore, a lot of power, but not as much money as it had before. And I think that was really the point I've always maintained. That the truth is is that the, the, the oppressive parts of big governments throughout the world. They want to keep you afraid, but they don't want you to die in mass, because that would be killing the golden goose, the, the reason they exist is because of masses of people. So I think I just don't see it. Like I said, a rogue nation, potentially sure, but they don't have the ability to fire one through the sky. But a rogue nation could put together something and and light off a nuclear weapon, as far as you know, country a launching a full, you know Strike against country B, launching a retaliatory strike which annihilates all life on the planet. Don't see that happening.
Speaker 2:Well, the United Nations, as of October 3rd, had the doomsday clock at 90 seconds to midnight again doomsday clock. Going back to the Inception of it is I don't. It sounds pretty scary, so it was.
Speaker 1:I think it was in 52, 1952, 1955 it was instituted another. In my opinion, it was just another measure of driving fear into the hearts of of the general pop, general population. I think it just that fear went a long way in spending a lot of money, yeah, on building weapons and for everybody, every. It was a boon for, you know, the entire globe. They spent trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars that they created out of thin air on what getting themselves and their families, you know, extremely wealthy.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that people listening have some strong opinions about this, as we're talking, Absolutely of course survival of the human species.
Speaker 1:Right, pretty big deal. Yeah, I don't want to sound flippant, it is a big deal, don't get me wrong, but I don't see it, not just the human species, but all life on earth.
Speaker 2:Essentially is what we're talking about we. We can't end it and all it takes is one mistake. I'm one misidentified object in the sky, one itchy finger from a country, one unhinged leader, and it can all go away. So I don't think I mean that. That's the kind of stuff that worries me, honestly that it could, it could happen and it wouldn't take much For that to happen. And we miss identify things all the time. And we have insane people in charge of countries Unfortunately more often it seems like now than maybe at a time to the past who have more, more destructive weapons that they're disposed of than they've ever had in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that um my faith helps me a lot in this area.
Speaker 1:I think that I guess wise because you know, if, if, if God, the architect of all things is who he says he is, then he's extremely powerful and extremely all knowledgeable. Nothing's happening on this planet that he has not ordained to happen. So the destruction of all life as we know it by nuclear means would have to be ordained by him. I don't see that happening, I don't see it working that way. So in my faith, tells me that I guess maybe that's why I have this flippancy. If you're listening, thinking I'm being flippant about, I'm not.
Speaker 1:It's just I don't believe that we are in charge of destroying every single, you know, mammal and or roach, cockroach, birdfish and human on the planet. That's not our decision. And we can boaster, we can, you know we can. We can put our chests out at each other and create all these new weapons and stuff, but at the end of the day that's not our call and that's. It's not gonna happen that way unless it is ordained to happen. And if that's the case, then there's a reason for it and I'm gonna have to be good with that reason. I don't know what that reason might be, I don't believe it is.
Speaker 2:But no, well, that's the thing. It's just scary to me because I don't have the faith that you have in that particular situation right the case. I think free will is a real thing and people are dangerous with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I, I, I respect that man. Yeah, it's just scary.
Speaker 2:It's a scary time, and scary even when, then, when I was a kid, right understand things and I know people better.
Speaker 1:The rationalist would say you know well, there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 2:It's true. Well, I worry about it.
Speaker 1:Why worry about it? Because there's nothing you do. Well, that doesn't change the facts. Right? You believe that you know the sub, the, the Russian submarine captain, who's got 24 nuclear warheads on his submarine and also all he needs is you know one other man to turn that key and fire those things off? Actually goes crazy and does it. Well you can't do anything about it, bro, so why worry about it, doesn't?
Speaker 2:help hunt for right October up in here.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite all-time movies, yeah it's a great movie.
Speaker 2:Come on, you're not gonna find actors like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. Sean the same movie together today. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Harrison Ford wasn't in it You're thinking of it was, wasn't he no? No, not. When you said Harrison Ford, it blew my. What's his name? You know, 30 Rock, john. Let's go, john, no, I'm off. One of my favorite actors ever. I love John, let's go. So she third rock.
Speaker 2:What a great show I love that show.
Speaker 1:I could do some, john, let's go right now, but I won't really. Yeah, um, I can't remember the man's name. Everybody out there is shouting his name at the radio right now. An actor, or, yes, an actor, and he did Jack Ryan Originally he wasn't that Harrison. Ford that was in clear and present danger. Jack Ryan is a character.
Speaker 2:Yeah, several different movies. Yeah, yeah, Jack.
Speaker 1:Ryan in hunt for red October was played by oh.
Speaker 2:Wait, 30 Rock, hold on, I'm gonna get you the name 30 Rock. Sean Connery, alec Baldwin, alec Baldwin, thank you, thank you, yeah, alec Baldwin, who played.
Speaker 1:Yep Tim Curry. Yeah, oh yeah, it was a great. It's a great movie. Go watch it everybody. I really watch it, go watch it, rewatch it. It's really good. It's really great it's it's it's done so well. You know, it's just one of those movies where you can.
Speaker 2:Well, it's in like a tight space, so much stress and drama. Like I remember feeling the anxiety watching it. When it was over I was like, oh right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there wasn't.
Speaker 1:There wasn't a lot of hokey cringy moments in there with those movies, kind of every once in a while some some Stupid thing that they got to draw out. You know none of that, it was all just top-notch all the way from beginning to end. You know it's really good.
Speaker 2:Well, going back to the original issue, which is thermal nuclear, Thermal nuclear destruction of all mankind. There's two things that can save us. I think one is divine intervention, as you said yes. And one is our ability to communicate with each other.
Speaker 1:Hey, I know something.
Speaker 2:Fixings, if we could communicate with each other and there's an arc control we could do that.
Speaker 1:Is there some sort of fraternity that could help in that area? I?
Speaker 2:mean look we're. I'm dealing with a little drama in my lodge at the end of the year and no. Honestly, all of it would have gone away with some communication absolutely it's a little communication would have direct communication, not online communication. Well, yeah, and I mean I, we had a final conversation last night about that situation and and it did come down to an admission of man I wish I communicated better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because that really would have solved a whole lot of issues. There would have been really no issues with communication, and I think with this issue, the problem is we don't. We're not communicating with our adversaries, and I get it. It's complicated. It's always doing some crazy bad things to certain people that we want to protect. So it's hard to talk and I know I'm not intelligent and I don't have degrees and I'm not a leader of a nation but your. It seems like communication should be a top priority.
Speaker 1:Well, in our fraternity I think we we kind of boast about it we have a system of being able to communicate.
Speaker 1:We're supposed to be yeah you know, brotherly, love and affection should open communication up in a very gentile, easy way. If I have a problem, I should be able to you know with confidence and with love and and respect, talk to my brother and work it out before it becomes an issue. But I'm seeing in the last year, in Not not just our lodge but all over the place in masonry, I'm seeing all of this angst and Maybe it's the sign of the times. People aren't don't know how to deal with their feelings About what's going on in the world and it's coming out. Maybe it's coming out in their homes and they're in their lodges, in their work, I don't know. Maybe there's just more anxiety Overall in the world right now and definitely and we're kind of seeing that play out you know throughout. You know throughout all different things, but I'm seeing you know a lot of it in in how could there not be?
Speaker 2:we're plugged in all day. I get notifications on my wrist fire, brimstone warning, danger all day.
Speaker 1:I turned it all off about two months ago.
Speaker 2:I have not been happier you know, you're smart and I really think there's gonna be a renaissance in the world of A return back to a simpler way. Yes, face-to-face.
Speaker 1:Seriously like fellowship.
Speaker 2:My wife showed me an ad that's out now for a new phone and the whole point of the phone is it has no apps on it, there's no notification right, it's a phone. It's used to make call. Wait, you mean it makes calls they? Call it calls you mean they call it light it's, it's just light. It's nothing but a light little phone that's meant to make phone calls and, yeah, you can connect to the internet and search stuff if you want to. But it's like take control of your life back. It starts right here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I like the idea. If you are so so overly plugged into it, it might not be a bad idea to cold turkey it out for me. I just simply stopped listening. I I've said this before on the show I, I, I love current events, news. I love to get the facts and I like to dig in to find the facts. So what when somebody's telling me all of these things about a current situation take the Hamas, israel thing and, and they're going on and on about it. Everybody's got all their opinions and stuff. I like to dig into secondary and and non-primary news sources and dig deep into that stuff. I love it.
Speaker 1:It's called the light phone right, I see the light phone calls and text people and that's it.
Speaker 2:No social media ever, Wow, wow which is good.
Speaker 1:Like I said, if you're, if you're deep in knee deep into it, you can't get out. You might want to try that for me. Just first, the first thing I did is I turned off all that news stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you kind of, because steps to do this on your own right and then and then I am.
Speaker 1:There's some podcasts, news commentator podcast stuff that I used to listen to. I I've just bummed out by it anymore and it's just not really bringing any joy into my life. And and what I found out is that they're not saying anything new For the last 30 days. The situations change, but, but the the base problem is still the same and it's all from you know, half a world away, which I have no control over. So I do have control over the things in my life and the people in my life I can care for, you know, those who are hurting and in need In my neighborhood. I can do that and that's what I choose to do.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to concern myself with the problems of the world, necessarily because I have no way of doing anything about it, but I do have a way of helping those in need that I can be face to face with, and I think that our craft masonry our craft has a lot to say about that. I mean, there's a lot we can do as a group of men who are dedicated to becoming better men and helping our community. And if you have anxiety about what's going on half a world away, why not put that away, go back to Lodge and figure out hey, how can we help the people that are right around the corner from us?
Speaker 2:You're on the side there, because a lot of us are armchair, everything right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And when the COVID came out, we were all armchair via our arms. If this comes out, everybody's going to be an expert on that. But the reality is, we can sit here and talk about how our governments don't do things right, but do we?
Speaker 1:Yeah right, do you deal with your problems correctly, because we are the government we're supposed to be the government.
Speaker 2:Do you govern your lodge the way that you wish the government governed our country?
Speaker 1:Uh-oh, now you're meddling, do you?
Speaker 2:communicate. Are you open, like, maybe we start by fixing ourselves and thereby can help influence the world in a positive way?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, if you want to change the world, you must first change yourself. And that was me I talked about at the beginning of the show that I have been praying about just my own life and direction and stuff, and the first thing that happened is my entire life began to be dissected and forced to review hey, this, that and the other in my own life, if you want to change the world, you must first change yourself, and you're not going to change the world. You and I, sitting here talking, are not going to do anything with the outcome of Russia, israel, hamas, blah, blah any of it.
Speaker 1:None of it. All of our talking, all of our arguing, all of our opinions won't change anything. But can we find a way here, locally, to do something to impact the life of another? Yes, we can do that. And I say, brother listening, go do that. Go and do that, because it will definitely lower your anxiety in a big way. All right, so why are we here? What is our actual teaching?
Speaker 2:this week. Are we going to do that or not? Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:All right, we're still reading out of the Masonic etiquette book, the large system of Masonic education. It's the yellow-covered book that you got, gl208, reprinted in 2010. We left off on page 8. And this week we're going to talk about grand honors, and it actually goes. It's actually like a full page.
Speaker 2:Probably won't go that far. I can summarize that for you. Yeah, there are only a few times in the Mason's life when he's afforded grand honors. Right, and it goes on to detail what those times are likely. Yep it does you get grand honors when you're installed as the Worshuffle Master of Elodge? You get grand honors when you're awarded a 40 or 50 year presentation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's 50 or more.
Speaker 2:Oh, only 50?.
Speaker 1:That's what it says. Yeah, brother, receiving a 50 year membership or more.
Speaker 2:So the 40s don't get the grand honors? No, 50 and plus we ain't getting that one.
Speaker 1:We ain't getting that one.
Speaker 2:Maybe our AI bodies will, but we're not getting it. Yeah, ok, and the grand master gets grand honors, as does the district deputy when he's received in the lodge officially, yep, so those are really really important events in a Mason's life, and not everybody's going to get those moments that are Mason's.
Speaker 1:Now, are grand honors something that can be done in public, or is this only in a tiled lodge?
Speaker 2:So there are public grand honors used at a funeral ceremony.
Speaker 1:Oh OK.
Speaker 2:Which differ slightly from the grand honors we do in closed tiled meetings. They are different.
Speaker 1:Oh, ok, ok.
Speaker 2:So we have our private grand honors and we have our public grand honors, and the public, I believe, is just in the funerals and we actually explain what it means at a funeral. Each step is explained to the present. And that's all written out in the blue monitor If you want to read it. So we're pointing to heaven and saying we consign his body, his spirit to God who gave it. We cherish his memories here in our chest and kind of hold our hands to our chest and then say we consign his body to the earth from once it came and we point down.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And so those are public grand honors that are explained to anyone. That's in the Masonic ceremony. But in our grand honors that our district deputies and worship masters get, it is slightly different and you really feel that this is a unique once in a lifetime experience. I was installed and got the grand honors, and that was the moment where I felt like I wasn't in my body anymore. It was like I was watching something happen to somebody else, because you just know instinctively, this is a one time deal.
Speaker 1:Right, right yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm never going to get that again in my life. And I didn't get it by accident, like I had done a lot of work yeah, you had and put in a lot of time to get to that point and it's the culmination of the beginning of the end of your Masonic career. If you just go through the normal officer line, that's going to be the end which you did, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:You sat in every chair. You sat in every chair and you went through them in succession, right, so you started as Junior Deacon. Sorry, junior Steward.
Speaker 2:Actually, that's the only chair I wasn't actually installed in. I've sat in it many times.
Speaker 1:Senior Steward. That was my first installed and you went all the way to WorshPLE. Master, how many years.
Speaker 2:Ooh, that was five years, five years, wow. Five chairs, five years, and then UND is the master and that year is over when it starts.
Speaker 1:Basically, you blink and it's gone.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that installation is the beginning of the end of your Masonic career in the line and it's kind of like a reward for all the effort and the time you've given the Lodge and the brothers. And you feel it, man, it's a moment. And I can only imagine going further up at District Deputy and a Grand Master being received amongst your brothers is probably pretty magical too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure I get it.
Speaker 2:I saw, Wright, worshple, haber, and he seemed to always get choked up every time. I was at almost all of his official visits when he was at District Deputy and it seemed like quite an emotional experience every time it happened. So I'm sure it doesn't lessen as you get it over time. But that is something we do to honor our brothers for their service and for their dedication to the craft. And the Grand Honors is one of our secrets that we don't show the public Correct, so we can't really talk in detail about what it is.
Speaker 1:Right. No, that's right, that's ours. So if you want to know what that is, go down to your local Lodge and ask for a petition.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's what I would say. Go ask for a petition, find out what it's all about. Ask them. You want to know. Go ask them, because there is a Lodge in your town.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:There is a Lodge in your town, so the next one is Grand Lodge, is the heading. It's on page nine. It says Grand Lodge is the great source of power in the craft. It has legislative, administrative and executive jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to the fraternity. Our Masonic traditions are in its keeping. It is only right that our respect for its officers be shown by adhering to certain rules of etiquette necessary to maintain that respect. And this etiquette must be punctuously observed. Yeah, punctuously observed. Grand honors are symbols of that honor and respect.
Speaker 1:Talking Permiscuous, moving about the room failure to address the grand master or to use his proper title when speaking, are all violations of common courtesy and gentlemanly conduct. It is an assemblage numbering hundreds. It is essential that these rules be strictly adhered to in order that business coming before grand lodge be dispatched with promptness and in a dignified manner. Not only are these rules relating to decorum applicable to grand lodge, but they might well be taken seriously by our lodges, in which decorum is sometimes conspicuous by its absence. Hello, are we meddling a little bit? There Is this thing on.
Speaker 2:Well, you've been to grand lodge now, yep, and you'll go again. And I encourage everybody in the state of Florida. Anyone can go, you don't have to be an officer, you don't have to be a master out of that. Anyone can go. That's a Mason. Please go. There is nothing that's going to compare in Freemasonry to sitting in a room with over a thousand other masons and, after a prayer, hearing a booming, echoing somo to be throughout the hall. Man, that's a moment that I look forward to every grand lodge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you're part of something real.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what you're talking about right there. When you go to the grand lodge communication every year here in Florida, you realize just how big the fraternity that you belong to is and it really really just for me, it just really solidified. Yeah, I'm in the right place. This is something I should be doing, because we say it all the time on the show man, we have brothers all over the world. I mean it's big.
Speaker 2:It's not small.
Speaker 1:This is a big deal and it's worth preserving, it's worth fighting for and I'm not going to go down that route.
Speaker 2:But, it's just People have an attitude of it's always going to be there, come on, it'll be fine, you don't have to worry. But no, we do.
Speaker 1:You do, because it's not always going to be there. If we don't fight for it, if we don't stand for it and practice its principles and do what Doug Dobbs would say Lodgework, no, florida work, not Lodgework and carry the traditions forward, it won't be there. It won't be there. Some version of it might be there. It's not a version that any of us want to be a part of.
Speaker 2:People with the attitude of it's always be there are the reason we might lose our Masonic home. They are the reason that we might lose our grand Lodge headquarters? Yeah right.
Speaker 1:I don't know much about the headquarters controversy, but I'm 100% with you on the home. I know it's expensive, I get that and it's not an easy thing to take care of in this day and age, but you know what You're going to, we're going to. If this show has anything to say about it. I want that thing there.
Speaker 2:People that were in the know knew there was something going on and knew they could do something about it and didn't act. And I don't know who they were. Yeah, right, but I know this happened and to that a shame on them. Like now we have to deal with this situation we're in where Right. Not good. So please don't take the attitude of it's always going to be there. If you're here, it's your job to fight to keep it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That's your part in this whole thing.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, that's right. It's not something that's been made to streamline it, to do the work to it, but it needs. Somebody needs to figure it out. There's always a man, a man with a plan, a man with a vision, a man with an idea who can rally men to himself to make these positive changes. But as it currently is and the people who are on the other side of this debate will tell you it's days are numbered. I mean because the numbers don't lie. But that does not mean we give up, and that's what we're about.
Speaker 2:We want that home to be there, like all we can do is what we can with what we're given Right, like we're in the situation we are in.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Maybe it is nothing we can do, I don't know, but still, let's learn the lesson. Let's definitely learn the lesson. Let's not do this again.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, listen, man, I don't know what we want to do next. What do you want to do? Oh, I know how. About jewels? Let's talk about the jewels. I got you jewels right here, boy. According to the custom of this grand jurisdiction, the jewels of the officers of lodges shall be of silver or white metal.
Speaker 2:Now we read this and you inspected our jewels.
Speaker 1:They are not silver. Well, they're silver in color. I guess that would be white metal.
Speaker 2:Does it specify? It doesn't really say real silver. It doesn't say real silver, it just says silver.
Speaker 1:Silver in color or appearance, I would assume Gold is reserved for grand lodge jewels and should never be used by the constituent lodges. Cases have been observed of lodges accepting and using solid gold jewels as a present from some outside organization. This is improper. The jewels of grand lodge officers are gold or the color of gold yellow, not white and should always be worn at grand lodge functions. Officers' jewels are a part of the official and necessary insignia of the office and are besowed as such at the time of installation and should always be worn with and respected as such, never personal or private adornments. Those jewels don't belong to you. They belong to the office. As a treasurer, when I put that thing on, it's signifying the office that I hold. They're not mine. They get to wear them around. They're not mine. They belong to the craft they belong to the office.
Speaker 2:They can't wear them to a party and be like hey, look at me, look me up, baby, you got a gold jewel Baling. It ain't that way, it ain't that way.
Speaker 1:It's a sacred trust and it's part of our ritual. It's all part of the grandeur and the mystique and ritual of our craft, which I love. I love that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:I really do. I love it. I am of the opinion that it will be part of my life. For the rest of my life I'm not trying. We are a group. Of us did dedicate to get together this coming year and work towards our silver card Work towards your gold card. Oh, gold cards Both cards. That's right by the end of the year.
Speaker 2:We will have a gold card next year.
Speaker 1:Which is a huge deal, because we want to be good at it, we want to be proficient at it and we want to be able to share with others that part of masonry, that secret part of masonry, that we do our ritual work, which is just so much fun.
Speaker 2:Well, what we're going to try to do is treat it like a traditional catechism class Correct. We'll have a group of six guys, hopefully, that meet once a week and we'll start with the give-backs. Yep, get our silver proficiency card, work through the blue, the green and then work on the oranges together as a group. As you give them back, you'll get your cards. By the end of the year we should have six new gold card holders in our lodge.
Speaker 2:That would be a lot of fun. Yeah yeah, you'll be able to do lectures if you're so inclined. I highly encourage you to do as you learn a lot about yourself.
Speaker 1:If I could do it.
Speaker 2:I would do it, you can do it and you will do it.
Speaker 1:We'll see, we'll see. I'm up for it, Do it with another guy. No, I'm open. I'm totally open. Yeah, I would love to do that. That looks like so much fun. I'm totally open to the learning process. So in 2024, and maybe we'll just do a little reporting on it how it's going throughout the show so folks can see how it's going. We'll give some updates on it. That'll be fun. Yeah, watch our progress throughout the year as we attempt to go from no card to gold card in one year.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. It's going to be fun. Yeah, that's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:I think back to your catechism time.
Speaker 2:Those were fun times with the brothers.
Speaker 1:I've said it before that the fellow craft degree catechism and give back was absolutely awesome for me.
Speaker 2:You had a great time. I really had a great time with it.
Speaker 1:It was great Everything about the fellow craft. Everybody says that, I know, but for me it was absolutely true. It was just a really good time. I was able to, and I think I probably still could, with a little brush up. I can do the entire thing from beginning to end, from memory, which is what we do. I think that the other two I'm going to have to brush up on and work on. I couldn't be as confident, but that one I can. I just like the way it flows. I like being able to stand up and do it, which is part of the thing. It's the accomplishment of it all and the unity that it brings when you do it and your brothers are there rooting for you and you get it done and you do it right. Hey, this is Masonry man. This is why we love it. One of the reasons why we love it, one of the reasons why we're so passionate about it, is because we love this stuff.
Speaker 2:It's important for you as a person, it's important for your family and your community to become better. It is extremely important. Let me tell you, if you happen to be in the Englewood area on November 11, saturday, november 7, 6 pm, we will be having an outdoor master Mason degree. They have a dispensation from Grand Lodge to hold their master Mason degree outdoor in the wilderness. Trees around you, torches, real fire.
Speaker 1:So cool.
Speaker 2:This is going to be special. Then again, on December 16th at Englewood Lodge, number 360, we will have another before the end of the year, master Mason degree outdoors, where we will have six of our brothers being raised on December 16th. We both have parts in the degrees. Sorry to tell you that.
Speaker 1:Oh, surprise, surprise, surprise.
Speaker 2:Please, if you've never seen an outdoor master Mason degree, do yourself a favor and see if you can get there on November 11th or December 16th, starting at 6 pm. You'll get to see some not just good ritual work, but experience it in the way that we talk about it.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Lodge being covering being the clouded canopy.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Above us, you'll get to experience it. It's pretty special to hear the wolves in the background.
Speaker 1:Then there was a whipper wheel last time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what the heck is that?
Speaker 1:Whipper wheel is a bird that makes a sound that sounds like whipper wheel. Whipper wheel, it makes that sound. It's a legend. I think I've talked about this before. There's a legend of the whipper. When you hear the sound of a whipper wheel, the legend has it that that's God calling you to repentance for something that you have done. Oh Lord, so you're being called out when you've done something that you know is wrong, that you've got to make right, and you hear that whipper wheel. She's calling you out, man.
Speaker 2:We hear that on November 11th or December 16th and I go away for four to five hours. You know what I'm doing, you know yeah right, I got a lot of repenting to do to the whipper wheels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and you can guarantee that I just probably need to hear one every day. Yeah, that's the way my life's going right now, but we will prevail. So anyway, I think that's enough from the book for today. We don't want to give it all away. Maybe we'll do. There's so much in the etiquette book. It's really important that you know it.
Speaker 1:That's true. It's important that you know it because then that way you're able to conduct yourselves in and outside of the lodge in a way that is acceptable and it's uniformed. If we all understood this book, we would all understand why we do what we do, and we would understand and be able to help each other to behave correctly within the confines of the lodge. So I like it. I think I have liked this. I have liked this.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I have Hello, I have sorry. Earth to Fred, it was a cell phone.
Speaker 1:Cell phone came through, sorry. You need a light phone, I need a light phone, I need a light phone too. The Masonic etiquette book that we've gone through here I've enjoyed pretty much more than any of the other ones. I gotta say the Master Mason was kind of fun going through that one, but this was helpful and I enjoyed it. We got a lot of feedback from people that said you know, they never really opened it up and they never really knew what was in there and that because of the show they've opened it up and read through it and were enlightened as to what Masonic etiquette is. It's gentlemanly behavior, guys. You're a grown ass man and you're a Mason, so we're supposed to behave like gentlemen towards each other.
Speaker 2:This stuff is like movies. You know, when you watch a movie and you're 12 and you go back and watch it when you're 30, it ain't the same movie.
Speaker 1:It ain't the same movie, it's the same here.
Speaker 2:I think you get more out of this stuff when you come back at a different point in your life and Masonic career and read it. Right, yeah, you'll get more and different things out of it. So it's good to come back and reread these important documents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2:And we can get together, hopefully with friends and get different viewpoints on it, who are at different points in their life and, you know, have a little chat seat.
Speaker 1:That's right. So we do not have another esoteric discussion group. No, not this year, not this year. So that's done. Because of the holidays everybody we tried to do we tried to put one together for November because the weather's so good and we do them outside Fire bits. But the more we talked about our schedules, the more everybody realizes like it ain't going to happen, man. The holidays are upon us and it's just absolutely cranking down on us. And this is just November. Forget about December.
Speaker 2:This may be a good time for us to put together the agenda that we talked about and get it online for other people. That's not going into next year. That can use it to do to host them in their district.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree, that's a great idea.
Speaker 2:Let's put some resources together for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can put that out on the website.
Speaker 2:Put it on the interwebs, on the interwebs. Put it on the line, put it on the interwebs Take a picture and put it on the line.
Speaker 1:So anything you want to share before we get out of here. This show's a little short.
Speaker 1:I've shared enough, but I think we've shared enough and you know, at the end of the day, what Chris and I want anybody listening to know is that our heart is always for the benefit of the craft. We don't always perform that perfectly because we're flawed men, but the reason we do this show and the reason we're so passionate about it is because we want the craft to survive. We want the craft to do what it does in the lives of men making good men better. And you know, if you have a problem with this show, if you have a problem with anybody on this show, I would encourage you to mason up, brother, square your work and come forward With love and gentleness and respect. Share with us what your problem is privately and then we could rejoice together publicly at finding common ground, finding how we might work and agree and do things better together as a craft.
Speaker 1:Because I say it all the time you know, if you have a problem with a brother that is causing you to go outside of dealing with him directly, then you're wrong. Even if your cause is right, your methods are wrong. And if your methods are wrong, no one is ever going to get to the bottom of it, and there's a couple of situations out there right now that are like that. We're not getting to the bottom of anything. Because nobody knows the whole story, Because the whole story is not being You're referring to our Texas brothers.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. And others Gotcha.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, we're masons. Share our work by the square of virtue, circumscribe our passions and superfluidities and act like masons. Act like men.
Speaker 2:That would be lovely.
Speaker 1:And it will work out. We have a system that works, man, and when it works it works really well, man, and I really love it when it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we appreciate you guys for listening. It's always shocked when I go somewhere and meet someone who says they're a big fan.
Speaker 1:I know right.
Speaker 2:In every episode. My first thing is give me feedback. What could we do? Because you know we're here trying to figure it out and we don't get that direct feedback. So yeah, give it to us if you have it.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, we're willing to listen.
Speaker 2:We're absolutely willing to listen and just be a pass on the back. Although they're greatly appreciated, we want to get better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we want this show to be all it can be, and if you guys have listened to the, if you listened to the very end, you're our hero man. We really appreciate that. We will do this again Every week. We will drop a show for as long as Steve and I are alive. Boom, and it will happen. So till next time, brothers, square your work, man, square your work, build it strong, build it strong, be a Mason. Thank you guys.