On The Level Podcast
Some people think Freemasonry is on the decline, not if we have anything to say about it! Join On the Level Podcast as we explore that Esoteric side of Freemasonry. We talk about the inner workings of our Fraternity, how to apply it's teachings to your every day life to become a better man, and general current events. Join our host and guests as we explore Freemasonry together and bring our ancient craft into the modern age!
On The Level Podcast
United by Ritual A Journey into Masonic Fraternity and National Identity
Ever wondered what binds a Mason's heart to their craft, or how the pillars of Masonry support personal and societal fortitude? Join Fred and me as we traverse the multifaceted world of Masonry, offering an intimate glimpse into the personal commitments and national history shaped by this storied fraternity. Our conversation takes you through the trials of technological adaptation, my heartfelt departure from the lodge in Florida, and the magnetic pull of Masonic traditions that beckon me back for a special degree ceremony—a testament to the enduring bonds within this unique community.
Strap in for a historical odyssey as we recount our poignant Masonic pilgrimage to Washington DC, where the reverence for our nation's past and the role of Masonry therein are palpable. From the solemnity of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to the awe-inspiring traditions at Potomac Number Five Lodge, we uncover a patchwork of Masonic influences often overlooked by the very locals who tread these streets daily. The narrative weaves through the symbolic majesty of the Capitol, the George Washington Masonic Memorial, and the intriguing possibility of hosting an annual Masonic tour; this chapter of our journey illuminates the deep roots the craft has in the bedrock of American history.
As we grapple with the state of our hurting country, we ponder Masonry's enduring values and their potential to steer young men adrift towards a haven of guidance and purpose. We delve into the need for active Masonic engagement and visibility in the public realm and reflect on our recent visit to the capital as a powerful reminder of what's at stake. Our dialogue culminates with the call for financial health within local lodges and how this sustains their ability to uplift communities, drawing upon our steadfast commitment to the values and philanthropic missions that define Masonry. Tune in and join Worshipful Chris Burns and me as we explore how the ancient principles of this venerable institution continue to shape hearts, minds, and the very fabric of our nation.
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. Wow, we're here, there it is, the Rebel Yell from the Rebel State, no doubt.
Speaker 2:South.
Speaker 1:Carolina.
Speaker 2:In the south, I'm in the southern boy.
Speaker 1:He's a southern boy from the south. Wow, chris, this is different. Our tech the tech side of it is a little sketchy here. I'm still working through some issues, but for those of you listening, this intro was probably our worst ever, and there's a reason for that. And the reason is is that my partner, chris Burns, is in South Carolina calling in down to beautiful Florida. What's going on with that man?
Speaker 2:Hey, your technology skills are becoming way more important than they've ever been now.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't have it. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well see, you don't know who knows.
Speaker 1:This is, I don't know man. This is. There's so much here. The problem is and I'm going to say this out loud Okay, the problem is is that we have a Mac OS which does not want to play nice with our recording deck. So that's the problem. I've been on the phone with Tascam, with all the different tech people, and they it's the same old thing. Mac does not want to play with outside, non-proprietary software, it just doesn't want it. It doesn't like, it doesn't want to do it. There's a roadblock at every turn and I've had it, so we're going to get it.
Speaker 2:You're going to admit to me that you made a breakthrough, though.
Speaker 1:I made a breakthrough. I did, I made a breakthrough. I was able to download the firmware off the website, which you have to download it off Tascam's website. You have to do all kinds of stuff because Mac again doesn't want to accept it.
Speaker 1:So you got to go round and round and round to get it on the on the computer. From the computer it has to be downloaded onto the SD card on the deck. From there it must be downloaded onto the deck itself. And Mac just doesn't want to do it. And they're all telling me that on a PC this is one click and it's done, and on a Mac it goes round and round and round and every single, every process there's some sort of proprietary thing that pops up, Doesn't want to do, it, Doesn't like it, Doesn't understand it, it's like oh, I'm happy.
Speaker 1:So I I am not a Mac guy. I did not. I did not raise my children on Mac books and I bought this thing because I wanted to try it and give it a try, and I so regret it. I know there's a lot of Mac people out there that are just yelling at the at their at me right now but I don't care, brothers. I don't, I don't care, I don't care. It doesn't work. It just doesn't work when it comes to non-proprietary applications. It simply doesn't want to play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you got to use the proper tool for the proper job. You can't you know? Yeah, this is going to work all the time.
Speaker 1:Right, that's right. So we're going to get a PC with windows, that's right. I said windows, and it's going to work like magic and I'm pretty excited about that. Anyway, how are you brother? How's things going? You moved to South Carolina.
Speaker 2:And let me tell you I didn't. We did a stated meeting on Tuesday night.
Speaker 1:Right, I was there.
Speaker 2:At a regular state of communication. Yes, it was a great meeting. Santa came I still get off load photos of that and we had our elections and it was just this awesome night. We did a give back and awarded with eight brands. The guys wanted to go have a drink because everyone knew it was my last meeting.
Speaker 1:And you had to get on a plane at 3am.
Speaker 2:Well, actually I drove.
Speaker 1:So please explain.
Speaker 2:One and done was the plan, and after three shots of the Kula, four drinks and many karaoke songs, I only got the better. On 12 30 had to get up at 2 30 to pack the truck for another 45 minutes and then proceed to drive for 11 hours to get here. Wow. So I had a rough, rough night, but it was well worth it because we had a great time with everybody.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I'm coming back. I'll be right back tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Do a master Mason degree for 10 brothers, another one, it's like the third time this year. An outdoor master Mason degree in Englewood for 10 brothers. Yeah, that's, that's going to be awesome man.
Speaker 2:Englewood launch number 360.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's dedication. I just moved out of the state, drove 11 hours coming right back two days later.
Speaker 1:Coming right back, except you're not driving. You're flying, which is going to be just a little easier.
Speaker 2:We will eat up and have and talk some business and change some things. You got to give me some things that's brought here and I need to give you some things for down there.
Speaker 1:Yep, we'll get it together. We're getting our stuff together. Yeah, and just a heads up. I just want to thank you for anyone listening and a heads up for for you partner. I got a notification from Facebook that we are in violation of their community standards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a spam thing that they send to everybody to try to get you to click links and do things.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, good.
Speaker 2:Good, but don't worry about that.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if, if for any reason, we're off of Facebook, guys do not despair. It's clearly an error on their part and we'll get it fixed. So I just wanted to make sure that you can always you can always find us on the website. You can always go to on the level with Fred and Chriscom, and and catch our share, we'll be okay on Facebook.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing that I am worried about. We only have three weeks left to sell tickets for the Masonic education symposium.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:We need to stop about a week beforehand because of the R venue needs a headcount to prepare the food In advance. And so we will stop selling tickets the week before. So what is that going to be like the third of January?
Speaker 1:Yes, correct. Or the six something like that yeah.
Speaker 2:The six, I think, is that Saturday after our installation on the shift.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:We have three weeks. Guys, please go to on the level with Fred and Chriscom and you'll see right there on the homepage. The event that we're doing in Sarasota on January 13th Starts at 9am and goes until 5pm. Tickets cost $50. And we have three guest speakers and a keynote speaker. These are amazing lecturers that are going to be talking about really cool Masonic education yeah Topics, and you get to talk to them. You know, part of this whole thing is that we are going to do what we always do have a conversation Right that's right With each of these people, each of these brothers, including our keynote speaker right, where she'll tell you a Tala who's one of our grandmage officers, and we'll be talking about the future of Freemasonry with everyone that shows up. I'm sure he'd love to hear your ideas about how the grandmage could help improve Freemasonry in Florida. So please come out and tell him.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be a great time and there's dinner is included and drink tickets and it's at Sarasota Saheb Shrine, which has a gigantic tiki hut right out front. Really nice outdoor bar, nice indoor bar. The venue is real nice. I mean it's a great place, it's going to be a great time and sponsored by the three Ruffians premium cigars.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:They'll be out there today during the during the program. That's right.
Speaker 2:Sarasota D Malay chapter will be there assisting and if anyone else wants to sponsor, we have room available for tables.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, we're looking, I'm looking forward to it. It's the first one of many that we're going to do and so we're going to, we're all going to kind of pioneer this thing together this first time out. The goal and hope and goal is to do four a year, every quarter, to do one every quarter. And then we also kicked around. We were up in Washington DC. For those of you who didn't see on the Facebook post, we were up in Washington DC to do the yearly what is that? What? Officially it's the, it's the. It's the Reef Lane, annual Reef Lane at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But it was a three day thing for us that we went. We went to Arlington, obviously for the Reef Lane, and then we we spent a good amount of time there. Man, it was really awesome that day. And then the next day we toured the Capitol Not my favorite part of the trip?
Speaker 1:No, you're not very happy about that. I was not not my house anymore, but I went and it was interesting. For sure. I learned a few things while I was there and but then for me the thing that really really stuck out to me was being at Potomac number five lodge for their installation and seeing you know how they open in a master Mason degree and how they do their work, which is very different than ours. And but the basics are there. You know it's, it's Masonry, you can see it, you can understand it. No matter where you're from, you can still understand it. But it's different, you know it's different and it's cool. And also there in DC, in that in that particular grand, grand lodge, they have a bar there at the, at the lodge itself, which is very interesting. You can drink at Blue Lodge in DC, which I found very interesting.
Speaker 2:I saw that very interesting. There were several very interesting things about it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:The ritual work was pretty fascinating. Especially, I think we all agreed that when they level at the end it's more meaningful than the way that we level in the state of Florida.
Speaker 1:Right, and we can't really say exactly what that means. If you're amazing, you, you probably know what that means, but it was a really moving, touching moment where you know where you felt part of something.
Speaker 2:You felt part of it.
Speaker 1:Right, everybody came to this place, you know, and it was, it was awesome man, it was really good. Anyway, the point is is that we kicked around an idea of doing doing a summertime DC trip as part of OTL, as part of on the level once a year, an annual on the level trip, doing a tour, a Masonic tour of DC in 2020, late 2024. So that's something we'll be kicking around as well to kind of see if we can can do that.
Speaker 2:There's just so much history, masonic history right in that place. Yeah, and we found residents that lived there their whole life, didn't even know about the Masonic connections. Yeah, right it was just really amazing.
Speaker 1:It was amazing. They had no idea. The guys right down the street from the George Washington Memorial, a Masonic memorial, and he has no idea.
Speaker 2:I took her to the George Washington Masonic Memorial and she was shocked that that was there in public and she's had no idea her whole life that he was amazing.
Speaker 1:Right. And if you walk into that building, I was blown away and for anybody who's been to the thing the Washington Masonic Memorial it's no small deal, man. When you walk through those giant brass doors and the front doors are six doors wide and probably four floors in height of all brass, old school brass framing and glass door system and that's impressive because it's super high. The columns are there. You walk through and you're thinking, man, this is amazing. And then you realize you're standing in this area of all this marble and these giant that's all great and marble, if you want to say.
Speaker 1:Granite marble columns that tower over you, man. They got to be 60 feet high, man. It's an absolute marble and it goes on from there. The elevators, which are pitched from outside to inside, seven degrees each floor. You go up, they get closer and closer together until you get to the very top. It's all engineered that way and it's just an amazing thing. But yeah, so for me, doing a summertime trip because it was really cold, it was brutal cold for us Canadians, oh yeah, cold and rainy, cold and rainy and overcast the whole time. So doing a summertime trip up there with a group of guys we can meet from all over the country, and finding a couple of people who can kind of put together an actual Masonic bus tour where we just we charter a bus and then we go from Masonic thing to Masonic thing and do the teaching and stuff on it. I really think Jeremy Barnes could be a big help on this. Shout out to you, brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, brother Barnes. I mean, when we visited the Capitol, I literally saw him chatting with the government employees there. Yeah, and they knew him and he knew them. Yeah, they know him.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, he's definitely somebody that we want to get with on this and try to try to put it together and bring people together and really start educating people, because I need a lot of education on it too. There's a lot more there than I think. Even as masons, we understand.
Speaker 2:We scratch the surface. We know the influence this or that, but we don't know the whole story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because if you look at I haven't really totally thought this through yet but one of the things I noticed was the Supreme Court building.
Speaker 1:If you look at the apex, going into the grand entrance of the Supreme Court building, you'll see the mural above and what you see is you see Moses in the center, a statue of Moses in the center and sitting to his left and his right is Aristotle and Socrates and Plato, and it goes down through all of these different philosophers throughout all of history. Well, that thing was built in the early 1800s. So if the Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was begun and the war for independence began and was fought and won, by the time you get to the early 1800s, that thing is being built on the apex of that building right there, which is very Masonic, and I know everyone knows my Christian brethren who want to say that this was strictly designed as a Christian government. I think we need to step back and have a conversation about that, because, though most of the men were either either declared outright you know, christian men of Christian faith, or they completely agreed with the tenants or precepts behind it, like Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 1:But they were masonic in their application of the constitutional republic that they designed. And if you look at all the monuments, if you look at everything that you see out there, that's pretty obvious to me.
Speaker 2:If you think about it, we know the influence that the masons had. We know that the masons were probably exclusively Christian there in that place at that time.
Speaker 1:Well, they under if they weren't actual. You know Christian men who held to the tenants of the Christian faith. They were for lack of a better word sympathetic to the teachings and precepts behind the moral code it represents.
Speaker 2:I would bet that the majority were out practicing Christians. But this is how you know. The masons influenced our government because, although they were primarily Christian men, they were masons too and they knew the importance for tolerance of other religions as part of inclusion and making us one unit, one whole family. And I think that that comes through in our government because, although we were founded by Christians, I don't think they intended it to be a strictly Christian nation.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean well, and I think when we talk about the word tolerance, that's a modern word Now. Back then they would not have known anything about that. They were not necessarily. They surely would have understood importance of accepting what they were looking for was they didn't want to create another government system that could impose its will on the people.
Speaker 2:That's what they were completely intolerant of.
Speaker 1:They were intolerant of another king, another monarchy. So they crafted. So they had to sit down and craft a government system that would not allow for this type of thing, and that's why I think what they settled for was is that the people ie those who go to church, those who don't go to church, those who are strong in their faith, those who are not strong in their faith, don't have a faith at all. The people are required to force the state to remain within its jurisdiction and boundaries. So we, as the people, were to hold this leviathan in distrust and not let it grow and not let it get out of control, and hold it accountable. Now we have miserably failed in this day in that area. But that's what they crafted, and I think that is a very Masonic idea. If you look at our Masonic government the Grand Lodge of Florida when you go there, it's a representative form of democracy.
Speaker 2:It's exactly like our government.
Speaker 1:It absolutely is, everything about it, yep.
Speaker 2:We've got our legislators with the vigilance committee. All these other committees are the legislators and then we've got the House of Representatives. That's us. We go and vote.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, we have all the members.
Speaker 1:It's completely representative. So it's not mob rule. It's not every one man, one vote, which is mob rule. And of course Plato, he explained that very clearly to us that it's a failed system. It is a constitutional representative republic and it's brilliant in its crafting. But anyways, we're down a little bit of a rabbit hole here. But the truth is that when you tour, when you drive around DC and you start to take it in and you start to see this stuff, you realize that this entire system was Masonic at its core. Man. And there's lodges all over the place out there and there's all kinds of symbolism and stuff all over the place. And it's just interesting to me how in our day and age, today, masonry can be held in such suspicion. You know, having been Well.
Speaker 2:we forgot a lot.
Speaker 1:We have, I guess. So I guess we've forgotten all of it. I mean, we've completely been. We have not been diligent in any of the things the founding fathers told us we needed to be diligent in.
Speaker 2:No, and Masonry as a whole isn't particularly good at claiming credit for things. Right, yeah, we'll be Too late to just stay in the background and do our thing and not take credit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:As individuals and as an entity, and I think that's a good thing in most cases. But you know, we do have a monument in Arlington.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:To Washington. So the fact that it's there and people still have no idea is a little scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, it just it kind of shows and, like the bartender, we were talking to you know who's in the heart of. His whole life. He lived his whole life there in the heart of DC and he had no earthly idea what Masonry really was. He's just one of those guys what do you mean? Like bricklayers? You know he's one of those guys, you know. It's like, yeah, and it was just. That was shocking to me.
Speaker 2:It was like, wow, we really I think we've got to do some re-education to our citizens about the importance of Masonry and our role in the formation of this country.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:Hopefully the role we can still play.
Speaker 1:And I, you know, and it goes back to that, putting together that yearly, that annual trip to, you know, to DC, the On the level, on the level, masonic education trip to DC annually. I'm going to be a bulldog on it. So we'll try to put that together, guys, and keep the, keep the costs down as best we can and get everybody to come, you know, to come and put, and my thing is going to be to find a tour guide who really knows this stuff and maybe year after year kind of build this tour to the point where it is so informative and it is so dead on, dead on, you know, that it becomes a must, you know, for every Mason to either actually experience it or maybe we can do publications of it and, do you know, broadcasts from there to help people. But the other thing is that it goes to what you and I are going to be talking about at the symposium on January 13th. Get your tickets, go online to. What is the online thing? It's the no, no, that's.
Speaker 2:We could just go to on the level freddacriscom. Yeah, that's it Right there on the homepage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get your tickets right away, don't wait. They're going to start selling really fast, especially when, as the holidays wind down, everybody's going to want to get their tickets at the same time and there is a limited amount. So please get online and get it and get those tickets. But the talk that we're going to do, that we're it's going to be a very we're going to be very brief the two of us, because we're going to let our guests do most of the speaking and we're going to let our the people who come in the audience do a lot of the questions and answers and speaking. Anyway, there's going to be an open forum idea. But our talk is a basic theme. Is the basic theme for OTL for 2024? And that is a question. And the question is does masonry have something to offer to this hurting country? And we think the answer is yes and we're going to try to develop that more and more, that theme for 2024, throughout the year. Does it? Does masonry have something to offer the young man?
Speaker 1:a young man who doesn't know who he is, doesn't know what to do in this world, has no purpose, feels like he has no purpose, feels like he's lost or wants to become something, part of something bigger than himself. Well, I think, and I know you do too, Chris, I think masonry has something to offer in that area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what we need are engaged masons.
Speaker 1:That's right and informed, informed and engaged.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we need to be active, we need to be contributing and we need to be visible and we haven't been some of those things for a little while now. And, you know, credit to my wishful catsillus and silverman for what they've been doing here the last six or seven years, because I think it is doing all those things it really is, it's getting invisible. We went around as a group of masons dressed nice, acting right in public.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I know a lot of people were looking at us and asking questions Everyone. There was a great representative to the community as masons, we were there visible doing things.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Touring the capital as masons. That was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:It was a trip. I had not been to the capital building since I was very young, so I really didn't understand.
Speaker 2:Well, I can see we had to basically bind you and blindfold you and gag you to get you in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's well, you know it does not represent us anymore. Those two houses represent themselves, and that's pretty obvious in their behaviors anymore. But that doesn't mean we're going to give up. It's worth fighting for, that's for sure. And I know I'm not alone. I'm absolutely not alone in that, in that idea.
Speaker 2:Those old man Isn't the other guy on the street? No that's not who we should be fighting with.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, these corporations controlling our government.
Speaker 1:Corporations and the politicians that sold out. The corporations and the politicians that sold out to them is really the enemy. And those people are in their 80s, late 80s. Hello, you know they're, they're very old Now, they've turned. You know the grift goes to their children, but there's still not that many of them. There's a lot more of us and I think we can begin. Masonry can be pivotal in helping people to put away the left versus right lie. You know and I think you and I are a perfect example, that we talk about it all the time. You know I would be, I would be considered more of a center right person and you would be considered more of a center left person, but we but we're able to be productive. We're very productive in what we do together.
Speaker 2:Well, we share the same desires.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And it's true. I think of everyone on the left and the right that are so passionate and hating each other. They both want their government to be good.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:They take these tiny little details that we have differences on to keep us quarreling with each other about the nonsense. Well, the big stuff just slides right out the door. Yeah while we're fighting and it's working. So the only way to stop this is for us to stop the bickering with each other about the nonsense and look at look at the back door and watch all the stuff they're carrying out, because we can stop them together, and I think we both want that stuff to stay in the house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right we both want the government that we started with.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, both very limited in its scope and power. Right and very much answerable.
Speaker 2:And it's an addition of individuals who prided ourselves on our, our strength, our tenacity or individualness, like we. We we've prided ourselves on that at one point and you know we've gotten a little bit dependent on things over time.
Speaker 1:We have, we have and we, you know the founding fathers. Their opinion of government employees would have been very different Than ours. You know, we, we, we hold them up. We hold them up as these heroes and you know that can do no wrong and there's somewhat somehow they're a little better than we are, kind of idea they were trying to basically deify that man. Right, right, and he was, he was.
Speaker 2:There were attempts were being made to make a deity out of the person.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the time he would not be who he was. That's right he was fighting against it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. If you look at the capital Rotunda so they wanted to bury him and the center point of the Rotunda, and if you stand in the center and look straight up, you will see, you will literally see a picture mural, a whole mural system of Washington as a deity and the idea was is that he was supposed to rise up from his grave where he was buried at the bottom of the Rotunda, right there, rise up into glory to be this, this deity. They really, really wanted a king man and they wanted him to be the king. You know and you can see all of this and it just, and we, we as, as as people who actually make this country work, we need to fight against that.
Speaker 1:And my the point I was making was that our founding fathers would not have treated the average, you know government in air quotes employee with much respect. They would not have understood them. They would not have understood the deathe, the lady behind the DMV counter who treats you like a piece of garbage. They, they would not have understood that. They would not have understood that they were in America. You know the ideal with building I'm in the trades dealing with building department officials All the time who treat you like you're an absolute moron and have no time for you and lie to you and about you and hold up jobs just for their own ego's sake. Our founding fathers would have taken up arms had they seen something like this Leviathan, that that holds us in contempt, you know, every day of our life. They would not have understood such a thing. Now I don't know what the remedy is. I say you know, you, you change hearts and minds one person at a time, and I think that's what.
Speaker 2:Masonry does. And I agree, you've got to be, you've got to show them. People don't believe things unless they see it with their eyes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know, it's like those people that built our country. They built the house. They built their own house.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And the respect, the reverence they had for the thing that they built was probably off the charts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:But when you get to a house that you built with your bare hands, three generations later, the great grandkids are ripping everything out. They don't care about the history of that house, they don't care that it was the first to do this, this or that. They're like no, take it out, it's old. I want new, new new.
Speaker 1:I want new yeah.
Speaker 2:And they lose their history, and that's what's happened to us were generations, generations, generations, and a large portion of our population have lost its history because they just don't care. And so, as masons, I think we benefit from the fact that we revere our history and we teach it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And not just American history, but our history. Is a species on the planet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:And more that you try to lift up history, I think, the more successful your civilization is going to be. Yeah, we need not like the fact that you have to always live the way you did thousands of years ago, but just understanding why they live the way they did will help you live better, like today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they wrote they. They wrote a lot. Thomas Jefferson left us a lot of the why he did what he did, why he believed what he did. You know he was, he was a deist. He didn't hold to the miraculous but he held to. He was very much into the enlightenment, you know. That was, that was his thing. But he understood human nature. He totally understood the checks and balances that are, that are built into this system. He, they're there for a reason and now they're gone. You know, and the checks and balances, it's all one lump of grift going on, you know, and it's just what they're playing to.
Speaker 2:Well, they're playing to our base instincts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:So to our higher selves, right, and we've revered virtues and things that you know were hard, difficult, but now it seems like all politicians play to your most base primal instincts, Right, yeah. And all the while dangerous.
Speaker 1:Thing all the while getting richer and richer. And that's why you know you, you you vote a guy into into national office who says who's who's got a life of exemplary service. You know, I think of there was a senatorial candidate that I helped support in Denver in Colorado back in the late 90s and he was just a straight shooter, everything. I mean his entire career. He'd been in government since, you know, from out of high school, for goodness sakes, and the guy had exemplary marks of a guy that really did what he said he was gonna do along the way and literally his first year in Washington DC he just reversed everything he'd ever believed in and became another grifter and to this day he's one of the biggest grifters up there. And yeah, and it's just amazing to me that there's something about the unfettered ability to take to line your pockets that just it doesn't matter who you are, you're a human being and that temptation is gonna get you man. And that's the problem with what goes on up there.
Speaker 2:We drove around. There's so many problems. I mean, oh yeah, we drove around. There's no IQ test to get into government. First of all, there's no requirement that you have any knowledge of history or even the workings of government or our own constitution. There's no test.
Speaker 1:No, that's right.
Speaker 2:To get into government. I mean, anyone can get in there. All they have to do is become popular enough.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:I'd sure like to see some like let's, let's make them take a test and exhibit that they understand our constitution and that they know some important things that happen in our history, before they go work in the government that we, that represents us, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that would make them accountable to it. So they don't wanna know anything about that. And once you get into that position, once you're in the position, then you surround yourself with people who do all the work and keep you out of the loop, so you're not accountable, you know, for any of the things you do, and that's kind of the way it works. They have these gigantic entirges of people that surround them, that they put them.
Speaker 1:They put themselves, you know, in the center of this massive entourage. I think at one point Harry Reid, who was a senator from Nevada, had 380 people under him, 380 people working for him. I mean, that's a government. He was a government unto himself. I could be wrong about that number, but I think I seem to remember 380 of the people. And he was sponsored by every single defense contractor in the state of Nevada and he was just one of those guys. Like Mitch McConnell Same thing.
Speaker 1:You know. If you look into the man's financial past he and his spouse you would be outraged. You know, I was outraged. It's like, are you kidding me? This man is worth hundreds of millions of dollars on a civil service salary and has connections all over the world, especially tight connections with China. It's like come on, man, and he's held up. Now he's a right side guy, so he's held up by the right as this stall worth of freedom, you know. But he's a grifter man, he's a total crook, you know. And if you look at a Chuck Schumer, same thing, man. If you look into Chuck Schumer's life and where he's gotten his money, he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And if you look at their life, it's like you'd be shocked man. You know that this is not the way it was. All right, we're going down this rabbit trail.
Speaker 2:Don't get me started. Like in most jobs, you have like a at least an annual review, it's not a quarterly review or over, like our successes and our you know, are we getting better? How about we do that for our politicians?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, can we?
Speaker 2:do a little review, because once they're in, they're in.
Speaker 1:They're in. Yeah, they're in, there's no review.
Speaker 2:There's no way to get them out, Not really other than taking extreme measures and wasting a lot of money to try to get it done.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But even that's become political stunt. Now I think pretty much every president to the end of time is going to. Impeachment proceedings will begin on day one of his inauguration. Oh yeah, that's, that's what's that you're on?
Speaker 1:That system is so broken. It's, it's it's banana republic.
Speaker 1:It's a banana republic kind of idea anymore. So if you're listening right now and you're thinking, well, it's too big, it's too broken, there's nothing we can do, that's not true. There is something you can do and you can start. It always starts grassroots. All politics is local. You can, you can go to your lodge, you can begin to educate yourself, you can begin to live your life in a way that promotes liberty and freedom and fair trade, and and begin to educate yourself, your brothers around you and and your, your children and those who are younger than you, those who are coming up, and we can do that one, one person at a time. We have a network of lodges all around this country, all around this country, and we could access that network and begin a movement. Like I said, does Masonry have something to offer to this hurting country? I think we have.
Speaker 2:We do what I suggested and that we do in government in our lodges in Florida. If you want to get to an elected position, you have to do a certain amount of education and prove that you were educated enough to get the basic information. You need to be one of those elected officers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah, it's not a popularity contest. We've got to get away from that man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a cheery note to-.
Speaker 1:Cheery note to end on. Well, all right, so you know what you know.
Speaker 2:What's cool, though the. Going back to the DC trip, we saw the. When we toured the Capitol, we actually saw the display case that the Washington Devil sits in-.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the Capitol building here.
Speaker 2:Just tourists can come and see it and it's on loan from Potomac Lodge to the Capitol.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And this is a Masonic artifact, but it's also a government relic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a national treasure, correct.
Speaker 2:And so we shared it with the people as masons and we saw the trowel belongs to another lodge in the area and they also give their relics the Capitol to display to the people Right. And so we're visible, we're right there in front of everybody. It's just crazy that people just still have no idea what's happening.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, but that is our call and mission right there. There it is. So if you are, in fact, a brother listening to the On the Level podcast with Fred and Chris, then you know what to do. You know what to do. Go back to your lodge and get involved, educate yourself, come to the symposium. If you're in the state of Florida, if you're anywhere within the sound of our voice and you can make it, please come and begin to get charged up, get yourself excited and get passionate about educating yourself about this country's Masonic history, and then prepare to do something, to get out there and do something.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we offer to the young men of this country is a moral code. We are a system of morality. We have a system of living your life in such a way that is productive and beneficial to yourself and all those around you, and that's huge. We lack that in this country. Our young men are lost. They have no moral compass, they have no direction. Masonry, in a very real way, offers that to the young man who comes in. You know, we hold ourselves accountable. Generally speaking. We're men, we're flawed, but we hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard, and that is something that's very much lacking and that is something that Masonry does have to offer to this hurting country. Again, you're gonna hear me say that on the show over and over again. That's our theme for 2024. Do we have something to offer? And if we do, how do we get it out there?
Speaker 2:right, I think we've been saying from day one you have to fix your house before you can go out a side of it and start trying to fix anything else. So it really, for us as a fraternity, starts with fixing ourselves. I think We've been bleeding out through time a little bit and maybe a lot, and we need to reconstitute ourselves. And it starts at each individual lodge, not any grand lodge. No jurisdiction is going to do this. The grand lodge of florida helped by sponsoring a program for the lodges, but ultimately it's the lodges that decide to do it or not do it. And you know a lot of lodges are merging and some are going under, and that's going to be your lodge too, if you don't get on it yeah, well, that's right you gotta start fixing your own house.
Speaker 2:You gotta build up your membership, fix up your lodge, get yourself financially healthy and then you'll be in a place to actually do some good and help people yeah, that's right but most lodges are just trying to fix help themselves at this point. They themselves need charity. How can you do charity when you need charity?
Speaker 1:yeah, right, yeah, first when the mask, like they say on the airplane, you know when the mask comes down, secure your own before you help somebody else with theirs. The assumption, the assumption there is that you're going to be helping somebody else with their mask. That's the assumption. But the the the, the task at hand is make sure yours is first on correctly, so you don't die even your baby.
Speaker 2:They're like leave the child alone, put your own mask on, get your own mask on and then the imperative.
Speaker 1:The imperative in that statement is then you will go help others, right? They're not. It's not a suggestion. It's not a suggestion, it's, and that's the way I love the way it's worded. You know, that's always. It's always. It always struck me whenever I'm on a plane and they say that I'm one of the geeks who are listening to them, because I'm always listening for that. But I'm a geek anyway, one of two people on the plane listening.
Speaker 1:I'm one of two people on the plane listening because that's what they say. The assumption is that you will be helping others, but first secure your own mask, and that's exactly what you were just talking about right there and we have the.
Speaker 2:We have a plan for any lodge to help themselves. The oxygen mask is here. It's falling right out of our website that's right gotta put it on and do it secure it first yeah, just do it. Start fixing your lodge. You know you've gotta strengthen your numbers, get you and it will happen. It will happen if you just start the steps today. You will start to get new members. Those members are going to be extremely zealous. They're going to want to learn more about what pre-masonry is. And where did all this come from?
Speaker 2:right and then they're going to want to teach it, because that's what you do once you have knowledge yeah, that's right you teach it to people coming up. And now you've got a strong lodge and you're in a place where you can start your base money, where you can have influence and do things. So we hope that you take all of that desire to change the government we just talked about and go change your lives with it. First, right.
Speaker 1:Change right. Change yourself, change your lodge change, change your community and and maybe just maybe, if we're work by the grace of God and by a lot of hard work, maybe, just maybe, we could change the direction of this hurting land. That would be, that would be an amazing thing to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's great fruits man.
Speaker 1:If we can start fixing our own selves and building up our membership in our lodges, we will have influence again right, yeah, that's true everybody, everyone will know who we are again, finally yeah, and and like I hear people all the time who say you know, my grandpa was amazing. He was such a good man you know, he was such a. He was such a good man and I really loved him, respected him much, yeah, and he didn't talk about it much, right? So that's probably something we need to change. We need, we need to talk a little more about it, but I get the point for the old-timers out there who are yelling at me right now.
Speaker 1:The point is is that if you live your life, if you live a life of, of, of of integrity, uncompromising integrity, if you're an honest, hardworking person, people will know that about you, that stands out in this world, and people will trust you and you will earn the right to speak into their lives. And that's, and that's, that's the bottom line. You know each person. You know each person living the life of integrity and honesty. You know, and, and praying that, that that God would turn this country back to the kind of men that originally founded. It would be an amazing thing, so anyway. So let's talk a little bit about you, my brother oh geez.
Speaker 1:I know, right, right, okay. So, um, this is uh. Last Tuesday was your last stated meeting as worstful master of the mighty 147, sarasota, florida. So now you've got, uh what? We got one more meeting the day after Christmas. You and I will be the only ones there. Um, so, we'll that. That'll be your actual final gavel.
Speaker 2:Right, that's it, you're done well um, we have a called communication on January 5th that's the installation that will be the installation of the 2024 officer line, so I will open the lodge there. Okay, so that's officially. I will get to say some last words and then I won't get the gavel down, but I will get to pass my gavel to the next man, to Zach. Shout out to Zach there.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's, that's awesome. So now a lot of people are asking, a lot of people are wanting you. You, um, sold your home. We talked about this on the last podcast. You, you sold your home here in in Sarasota. Good on you. It was a dream that you had and a dream you fulfilled, and I'm so. I am so blessed to to know a man who actually did it. Well, I I shouldn't brag too much I did it too, but anyway, you did it, you did it, I'll probably do it again you did it, and then you and you bought a really beautiful property, something that you and your wife really desired.
Speaker 1:Uh, up in in South Carolina. That's where you are now. But yeah, I have heard you say more than once that you will always be a member of Sarasota 147. That's right for the rest of your life. So how's that gonna work? Tell people exactly what's your plan as far as that goes well, my business is a headquarter in Sarasota.
Speaker 2:All of my employees are there right directors in my employees, and so the company still has regular meetings, and I'll be going to those meetings. I'm only a one hour flight right right, and so I'm.
Speaker 2:I've already got three planned three flights in the next, in the first month, to come back, and one of those is coming to a our installation and another is a degree at another watch for our brothers, and one is for this education symposium, and so it's my hope that I can make it to at least one stated meeting a month and sit as a past master quietly and enjoy, so hopefully, to watch the fruits of some of my labor and my predecessors labor, yeah well and we're gonna need you, so you're gonna sit quietly, but but we're definitely gonna need your help in your leadership.
Speaker 1:Now, as far as the reimbursement program goes for the for Grand Lodge, john Schaefer, myself and you, we're, we are, we're committed for 2024 to be a part to be a part of that.
Speaker 2:So, and I know that will continue to move forward so, for our lodge, I'm going to go back into making those calls and scheduling appointments which I have been able to do all year nice yeah. John Schaefer is going to get some much needed help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we, you know, we brought in I think 16 entered apprentices this year and we raised 18 master mason's something like that was our numbers yeah, next year planned for more like 25 or 30 and apprentices yeah and a healthy amount of master mason's, and so the our, our lodge, is in a place where it's starting to become easier, finally, after a few years, yeah, and we're getting more used to the growth and we have so many. I wish I could express to you the level of quality of men that we're bringing into the fraternity through this program. Yeah, these are excellent men, young men, most of them are in their 30s yeah, and really, really good men. I just see them, wow. You really do see that it's true that you're made a mason in your heart before you are in a lodge yeah, that's, it's very true, that's very true.
Speaker 2:I am. We didn't do anything other than stay visible. I think that people need and want what the fraternity has to offer right now. It's absolutely true?
Speaker 1:yeah, no, it's absolutely true. You're right, and we we did the symposium last year up in in Hillsborough and that was one of our, our talks, you know, masonry. Now what and that was one of the things is that that it's not we're not, we're not, we're not sparking interest that isn't already there. We all we're doing is we're we're making ourselves available to men who have already raised their hand and said I, I need something in my life that's bigger than me. I need something in my life that's reliable. I need, I need this and I want this place to feel safe and explore right.
Speaker 1:You know my own thoughts and feelings and like for me, I just I didn't have any friends. I literally didn't have any friends. I worked and I came home.
Speaker 2:I was saying for me yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And now I have thousands of friends all over the world who I can, who I can call you know, my masonic brothers, I mean all over the world, who would do anything for me and I do anything for them, and and that's what the reimbursement program is doing, we're not. We're not creating interest where there is no interest. We're we're making ourselves available to those who already raised their hand and said I want something more in my life and and masonry is there.
Speaker 2:We're right there to say, hey, check this out, this might be what you're looking for yeah, and 2024 is going to be all about that because you me and john are going to kill the reimbursement program this year yeah, we want to just make every lodge aware of it, make sure everyone's tried it and, if they're trying it, but they're doing it right, so that they see success and just watch our state grow yeah, that's right and numbers and influence and hopefully save some lodges yeah, well, yeah, that's right, that's right. And and if we don't do something, we are going to lose lodges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, it's just a fact. There's a lot of lodges out there that just there was who was telling the story about a lodge in florida where, um, you know, leadership just kept ignoring your pleas of the secretary over and over again. Guys, we can't keep going this way, we can't keep going this way. And then, finally, at a meeting, um, the secretary got up in desperation and said I need it, we need to pass a hat tonight, guys, because if I don't pay the water bill, uh, on monday, they're gonna, they're gonna turn the water off to the lodge on tuesday got themselves in the place where they literally had to pass it.
Speaker 2:But here's the here's the more.
Speaker 1:Here's the point of the story nobody, everyone, was shocked. They were shocked. What I had no idea, we had no idea. It's like you know, it's like not listening.
Speaker 1:No one's listening. No one's listening. Yeah so, and, and you're right, there's a lot of lodges that are gonna gonna end up closing and we're gonna lose them. They're gonna sell off those buildings or do whatever they're gonna do, and it's it's a shame that that we're not gonna let that happen and it doesn't have to happen. If you're passionate about this fraternity, um, and you want to see it available to your grandsons, um, because I do, um then then get involved. Get involved this year. Make 2024 the year that you, you take at least one step forward, um, towards, towards helping masonry get back to the place where it used to be, in this country that's the key.
Speaker 2:And if you're in a place of leadership in the lodge or the grand lodge, your job isn't to preside over the selling off of everything you own and making as much money as you can as it On the way out. Your job is to save all that crap.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The job is to stop it from being lost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:So you gotta get off your butt and work hard if you're in a position of leadership and do your job and start saving things. Yeah, that's right, that's right preserving things Right, like bringing them back. All right, so to recap.
Speaker 1:To recap, everything's good. I you know. If you're out there thinking Chris Worshipful Burns is Going to abandon us for South Carolina, oh no, you're wrong. You're wrong as a matter of fact, the way you and I have talked about this. I'm thinking it's going to be even more productive because when you're here, we're gonna have a limited amount of time face to face. We're gonna have to get all of our things done. Yeah, right now we have a luxury of time when we kind of take advantage of it. We, when we're supposed to get together and do some business, we don't. Well, that's not going to be an option anymore. When you come into town, we're gonna have a limited amount of time. We're gonna have to do business. We're gonna have to get things set and working, get our action items going and get out there and get things done. So I'm looking forward to that. It's gonna be a great year. It's gonna be a good year for otl.
Speaker 2:Amazing year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna hit it hard and also we are uh dedicated to helping uh three ruffy and cigar company Take its place amongst uh and be successful this coming year. We currently have a fundraiser going, liberty Lodge is doing a fundraiser and and, um, I don't know where they're at on their ticket sales. But if you're local, well, local or not, it doesn't matter, but if you're, if you want to Uh participate and help out. Liberty Lodge 31, right, yeah, liberty Lodge, um, here in 412.
Speaker 2:Manatees 30. Yeah, sorry, same bill same building, different lodges same building.
Speaker 1:But, uh, they're doing a fundraiser for a $20 ticket. You can, you can enter um the fundraiser and help Liberty Lodge out, and the payoff is a 25 A box of three ruffy and masonic cigars, um, which are custom made just for three ruffy and cigar company, and they're really good. Everyone's raving about them. So, uh, shout out to us, email us, we'll get you in touch with them and you can get a. Uh, you can, uh, you can buy one of six. I think you can do it on their facebook page, if I'm not mistaken but just shout out to us For their website.
Speaker 2:Oh, the raffle tickets.
Speaker 1:No, you've got to find somebody in person, I think yeah, yeah, so shout out to us If you want to help out and buy a few tickets. Maybe you want to buy 10 tickets? Sure, we'll sell you 10 tickets.
Speaker 2:If you want to buy a symposium, I'm sure and then we'll be selling them at the symposium.
Speaker 1:The drawing is, uh, january 31st, um, and you could be one of two winners to receive a full box of uh, three ruffians, uh, cigars, uh, it is a 10 of the proceeds of that company Go to Shriners international, of course, and uh, it's a great company and we really want to see it explode. Um, full disclosure. I am, um, I am part of that company. So, and yeah, and so is chris, we, we try to keep OTL and the cigar company separate, but, uh, full disclosure is is that we are, we are part of it, but it is just another way for us to advance the cause of masonry In this country. And we do love cigars, we like premium cigars, and sometimes a little premium.
Speaker 2:all those sales go to, uh, Shriners or not? Yeah?
Speaker 1:like I said, yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's it's, it's a it's just another way a fundraiser. You know, if you're a mason, you understand fundraisers. We're always. We're always getting the bite For a dollar here or 20 dollars. They are put on us as mason's to try and help out, uh, the different causes that we're all involved in, and this is just another one. So if you're so inclined, shout out to us. You can reach us by email fred at on the level with fred and chriscom, or chris at, on the level with fred and chriscom. Shoot us those emails.
Speaker 1:Um, I still, for the last year I've been threatening to, uh, do we have been threatening to do an episode? Just reading the emails that we've gotten, uh, over the year. I know we got to put that together because I've gotten some really encouraging emails lately, uh, from people from literally all over the world. Uh, and it's just so encouraging and humbling to think that you guys are out there listening to us. You're taking back to your Lodges a lot of the education and a lot of the stuff that we've been, uh, we've been getting into and and really fueling your passion for the fraternity, and we just appreciate it, uh, more than we can say, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, I know that. I know that people really like the morgan affair Uh episode that we did blew up. Man, I would love to do uh a taxal hoax episode.
Speaker 1:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:Maybe gritty it's that whole thing, because I think a lot of people aren't aware of how Influential that was and how much bs it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like um I I didn't know if you've ever seen that picture Of the goat man sitting on a throne with a bunch of children at his feet, uh, and the masonic emblems.
Speaker 1:The masonic emblems. That's part of the hoax. That's where that came from, and a lot of people think that that picture Is actually a masonic document and we get, we that's and that, but it comes from a hoax, um called the trexel hoax, which, uh, yeah, and and there's one of our brothers who's going to be at the seminar, uh, teaching at the seminar did a talk on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, daniel Molina did a talk on it. Uh, it was really informative. Yeah, let's do it, let's, uh, let's, I'll pull up, we'll pull up some of Daniel's stuff and maybe we'll even talk to him a little bit out and we'll just we'll get it, we'll get everybody into it and, uh, learn more about it's, more masonic education.
Speaker 1:You can't learn enough About this stuff, you know. And, at the end of the day, if it makes you a better man, um to your, to your wife, to your children, to your, your parents, your church, your job, then then masonry is working, because that's where it starts. Uh, making good men better, making better men in the world, um to to change the world for, you know, for the better, uh, that's, that's really what this fraternity is all about. And if you're listening to this and you're not amazing, well, god bless you. We really thank you.
Speaker 1:For that uh and, like we say all the time, go down to your local, go down to your local lodge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just google free mason monge near me and find you'll find one.
Speaker 1:Go down there and talk to them. Tell them you heard these two knuckleheads On a podcast called on the level Uh, and they told me to come down here and talk to you because apparently you got something I need. So do it. Do it today.
Speaker 2:Was great. Great to keep this going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so we'll still drop them you need some semblance of home, which I needed. Like I told you last night uh, you did not lose a home, you just gained a second one man. So that's, you're a blessed. You're a blessed man, you got a home here, and you got a home there, man, so yeah, you are truly blessed. Lucky um, I'm lucky. I'm even luckier because now I have a friend, a brother, who lives in a beautiful place in South Carolina, so I can come up and visit you.
Speaker 2:Um and and hang out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, I'm ready. So whenever you're ready, you let me know I'm coming up by this lot right next to me. Yes my wife is on my. My wife asks me about that almost every day, so I'm I'm ready. Right now I'm gonna start making my inquiries Do it, do it, man, let's do that, let's get that done that way. That way we can, we can impact two states because South Carolina look out, baby, we're, we're, we got our eyes on you next man.
Speaker 2:South Carolina, Texas.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Texas, yeah, what's any update on the Texas situation. I know we can't really talk about it or talk to anyone About the Texas situation until after their installation or after january 1.
Speaker 2:I know we will be. We'll be doing an interview with the, the primary person that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:I want to see Texas Go from this, this tangled up web, or this mess that they've gotten themselves into if that's what it is, we don't really know the truth about it yet, but I want to see. I want to see them go from this to being just absolutely on fire and passionate About the fraternity going forward. They got a lot of young men wanting to get up in there and and affect some positive change for the fraternity and I'm I say bring it on, man. I'm, I'm ready, I'm ready to help. Otl is ready to help in any way we can to make that happen.
Speaker 2:Let's hope they take this situation and use it for positive change in the state of Texas.
Speaker 1:Use your superpowers for positive change. Baby.
Speaker 2:Great responsibility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. That's right, All right, man, well, I, I enjoyed it. We're, you know we're, we're 500 miles apart, but we're really not apart. We've got technology. When it works, as long as we don't have any mac os involved, the technology works well and we're gonna fix that. That's right, all right, so you're flying down?
Speaker 2:you're flying down saturday morning, yeah, yeah, I'll be there all day, sad if you, if you need anything from me, you just let me know.
Speaker 1:You need me to pick you up, you need me to drive you around, whatever you need, just holler out.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm always available to you, brother, you know that reserve.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've got it. I've got it. I'm looking right at it, man. It's right here at my bar.
Speaker 2:Oh wow so early.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, no, no, I'm not drinking it, I'm just looking at it. Okay, sure, but uh, yeah, so, uh, brother, it's, it's always a privilege, always a joy to uh to do this with you. I'm looking forward to 2024, um, and if you've listened to the end here, uh, you are definitely one of our rock star heroes. We really appreciate you Hanging with us to the very end.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1:Take what you've learned, take what you've heard back to your lodge. Talk to your brothers, talk, tell them about the podcast. We, we would like to be able to speak to as many masons as we can, and we'd like to be able to hear from as many masons as we can, um, for this new coming year, 2024. Uh, does masonry have something to offer to this hurting country? We, uh, worshipful chris burns, and myself, we believe it does, and and we're gonna do all we can To make that a reality. Chris, what do you got on our way out?
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to talking some more about the taxle hoax and Getting some more interested people on this symposium to come and join us in person. Uh, I can't wait to be back in for doing a master mason degree, doing another lecture. We have a lot going on. It's holiday season, like we're just really ready to end this year with a bang and then come into next year stronger than ever. So Buckle up and please join us in the adventure next year.
Speaker 1:You got it, man. I will see you on saturday. My brother, have an awesome day and you guys listening, you too, have an awesome day. Get out there and make a difference. See ya. Yes, please.
