The Hour Glass

The Hour Glass has always been one of my favorite Masonic symbols.  So much so that in my times as Master of a Lodge I often included the litany of the Hour Glass in the funeral or memorial service.

Holding the Hour glass out before me, watching the sand slowly filter down from top to bottom, these words seemed to have an eerie prognostication of life and what a fleeting moment our lives really are.

“Thus wastes man! Today, he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; tomorrow, blossoms and bears his blushing honors thick upon him; the next day comes a frost, which nips the shoot, and when he thinks his greatness is still aspiring, he falls, like autumn leaves, to enrich our mother earth.”

Brother Ezekiel M. Bey has added his poetic thoughts to the meaning of the Hour Glass in verses that should be taken to heart.

The Hour Glass, African American Freemasonry In The State Of New York

Ezekiel M. Bey

The Hour Glass
By Ezekiel M. Bey, FPS

I saw an hour glass with crystal sand
The grains fell through a slim sleek band
Wide at the top, wide at the bottom
Each single grain dropped through its model

Its mark was equal to minute’s lesson
To fill the bottom took sixty seconds
Equivalent to an hour I sat to look
As thoughts revealed a shape it took

Those crystal grains disciplined by law
The law of gravity defined it all
We start from top, end up below
We start from spirit, to give-up ghost

hourglassBut life is beauty and creativity
Depends on what we chose to be
Life has many choices and one is failure
Success defines a Godly Tailor

However, not all success is God divine
Not all who fails is crucified
It’s just the lessons we’re to define
It’s all what you are deep inside

So life itself is but a moment
So treasure it, solstice to solstice
There comes a time to understand
The last grained dropped in the hour glass

Hard Ball Masonic Politics Imparts Grief

Grand Lodge of West VirginiaOnce again West Virginia is in the spotlight of Masonic news and as usual it’s all bad.  This Grand Lodge is the only US GL to expel a Junior Past Master for his policies while in office. That foolish act has resulted in a civil court case that will start on 12/6/2010.

In the meantime West Virginia has pulled recognition from Ohio because it gave the expelled Frank Haas a new Masonic home. Because of that withdrawal of recognition West Virginia has refused to perform a Masonic funeral for an Ohio Brother who died in their state.

The West Virginia website, Masonic Crusade (archive page), reports:

Masonic Brother denied WV Funeral

Brethren a most tragic event has happened. A brother who resided and passed in West Virginia but a member of an Ohio lodge was denied a Masonic funeral by Randy Martin. It was all done in the name of the edict passed by Greg Riley.  The unnamed brother (out of respect for the family) was a well respected and accomplished mason. Irregardless of that fact,  even had he been a simple member of the craft he deserved better. We have we sank to a level lower than I expected of Grand Lodge.

I am told the brother’s family had a team of brethren travel from Ohio to respect his last wishes, but no West Virginia masons were allowed to participate. This barring of West Virginia participants was apparently done by order of the Grand Master of West Virginia. The Grand Lodge of Ohio would have allowed West Virginia participants, in much the same way that the edict severing relations was not reciprocated by Ohio. West Virginia masons are still quite welcome in Ohio lodges as long as they don’t mind risking their membership….

Lastly, lest the fanboys of Grand Lodge point out that there was a masonic funeral held, understand that if there had been some sort of “Masonic Police” the Grand Lodge of West Virginia would not have allowed the funeral to happen here.

The Judge in the Haas case has already made preliminary rulings that indicate West Virginia is in for a hard time and that this trial may lead to precedents being established that drastically change Fremasonry’s methods of governance. Knowing all that the Grand Lodge of West Virginia just one week before the trial has decided to play hard ball in what has to be one of the worst examples of public relations in the history of American Freemasonry.

When will this insanity stop?