I Have Decided I Don’t Want To Do Bare Bones Masonry Anymore

A typical Masonic Lodge will meet in a small sparse building which I call a shack.  It will be a two room affair – a Lodge room and a dining hall both sporting the barest of essentials.  Practicality will over rule lavish luxury. Of course there are exceptions.

Some stately and roomy Lodge buildings can be found in cities where multiple Lodges meet and Concordant Bodies also are tenants. But the number of these more luxurious cousins is a drop in the bucket compared to the large number of suburban and small town Lodges that dot the American countryside.

Rural Lodges don’t have much choice but to be this way.  But city and suburban Lodges could afford much better digs if all the Lodges in a 20 mile radius were to meet in one building.  Our European Masonic cousins have long found this to be the answer to meeting in surroundings of comfort. You can find many English Masonic buildings where up to twenty Lodges meet.

American Masons are wedded to having their own Lodge building which they share with no one just as the American public is wedded to the automobile which they share with no one.  Mass transit may be available but Americans with cars seldom use it. And HOV lanes in Dallas have reduced requirements to just two in a vehicle yet 98% do not take advantage of them. We all have to have our own thing. But in doing so “our thing” becomes too expensive for us to maintain all by ourselves. The result is that many Lodges meet in buildings of somewhat disrepair.

Of course better surroundings could be provided if Lodges were allowed to rent out their building to a wider clientele. But Grand Lodges in their ultimate, know it all wisdom impose so many restrictions on who local Lodges can rent to that no takers can be found. You can’t rent the Masonic Hall to any affair that will serve liquor. That kills most of your wedding reception business. You can’t rent out to women’s Masonry, Co-Masonry or in some cases in Mainstream to Prince Hall Masonry.  You can’t rent to any of the so called clandestine Lodges. It is doubtful you would be allowed to rent out your building to the Knights of Columbus, AA or the NRA.

Then there is the issue of participation. Each new Grand Master tries to outdo the other.  Each new District Deputy tries to make a name for himself by beating the performance of his predecessor.  Each new Master tries to out shine the previous Master. Consequently there are always a host of programs and duties that need to be staffed. Mainstream Masonry also has a plethora of Masonic Awareness/Charitable events which require a boatload of manpower. Masonic Communications become meetings of recruitment. Soon what is expected of a Mason is eating away at all of his free time.

I have decided that I don’t want to do bare bones Masonry anymore.  Masonry on the cheap is not for me.

The organization I belong to will have a beautiful, large building with many rooms.  The floors will be plush carpet or hardwood.  Wall paper and paintings of renowned artists will adorn the walls. I will sit in a large leather chair with a foot rest and a side table beside me. A waiter will bring me a cocktail and my choice of an hors d’oeuvre and an expensive cigar. If I prefer I can sit on the veranda in a rocking chair gazing out at the beautiful view.  One room will have a grand piano for those members who know how to play.  Another room will have a pool table and game tables. Seven course dinners will be served once per week.

I have no desire to be drafted into manning somebody else’s pet project. Instead of doing all the time I would much rather just be. After all I am a human being not a human doing. I will sit and learn about my organization in its giant library.  I will learn the knowledge I want to gain, if not by reading, by viewing presentations in the media room of my organization.

I will attend on the days or nights I have free time and an inclination to do so. My organization will be open for business six days a week but it will make no requirements of me or my attendance other than the dues I pay to belong.

My organization will be there for my edification and pleasure not to work me to death or enlist me in its army.

My organization could be Freemasonry.  Then again it could be not.

Posted in The Bee Hive and tagged .

Fred is a Past Master of Plymouth Lodge, Plymouth Massachusetts, and Past Master of Paul Revere Lodge, Brockton, Massachusetts. Presently, he is a member of Pride of Mt. Pisgah No. 135, Prince Hall Texas, where is he is also a Prince Hall Knight Templar . Fred is a Fellow of the Phylaxis Society and Executive Director of the Phoenix Masonry website and museum.

12 Comments

  1. My Blue Lodge meeting:

    1. A rather impalitable dinner.
    2. We open lodge. Half the officers are pro tem and don’t know their parts, although every PM on the sideline does and will jump on him if he misses a word. (For example, if one of the Deacons says ‘around the lodge’ rather than ‘about the lodge’ or vice versa–what’s the difference? It MEANS the same thing.)
    3. Reading of minutes; correspondance; bills; announcement of deaths.
    4. Complaints that people don’t come out for funerals. Never mind that funerals are usually announced the day before

  2. We eat a nasty dinner. We open lodge and anyone who deviates one syllable from the ritual–which nobody seems to know except the old vultures of PMs–gets yelled at for his trouble. We pay the bills and read some correspondence. Deaths are announced. We are berated for not showing up at funerals; never mind that most of us never knew about it, or only learned about it at such short notice that we couldn’t get off work. (SOME PEOPLE don’t seem to realize that not all Masons are retired, independently wealthy, or self-employed.) Then we close lodge. I don’t blame people for not wanting to come.

  3. Hi,

    What kind of masonry do you practice ? Aren’t there any symbolic papers presented ? What about earings of candidates ? Lectures about a masonic view of thé surrounding world ? debates about the future of thé odedience ? …

  4. The tounge-in-cheek closing is aprospos. However, BAW writes about his observations which are largely reflective of many.
    After a meet-up group yesterday morning that consisted of a mere few current members that has become all too common-place for our Lodge’s events, I can say that I believe what ever our organization once stood for, the elders have abandoned. They now seek to codify their seniority.
    I, for one, have become a little raw to the omnipresent character of many locally who ‘preach, but don’t teach.’ I’m very willing for hard work in sparse conditions, but, be damned, I expect the elders to get off of their duffs to represent the tradition in it’s proper and due form.

  5. I must be the exception to the rule. We do the meetings the same as everyone else, we have a few that snarl at missed words, we have 1 meal a month but we havwe the strongest brotherhood of any lodge in our area. All our officers greet everyone again as they come into the lodgeroom just before the meeting. Our food is’nt the best but that’s not why we come we come to “be with brothers”. The refreshment time after lodge unually lasts 1-2 hours after lodge is over. I’m very proud of my lodge and my masonic Brothers. I wish everyone could experience it just once.

  6. Know what I’ve decided, Bro. Beehive? That I don’t want to read about crappy Masonry anymore.

    For the last five years or so that I’ve been blogging, it seems like every other post I read is somebody complaining about the state of Masonry. Okay, your lodge sucks, your Grand Lodge sucks, we get it, really. But you can only complain about it for so long before other people start wondering why you bother to stay in an organization that engenders so much bitterness.

    If your lodge is that bad, then make a point of traveling to other lodges to find brothers who are interested in doing things better. Start your own lodge, or affiliate with a dying lodge and bring it back to life with better meals, better ritual, and a more pleasant and accepting culture.

    Does my lodge have problems? Sure – most of the people are working and have families. But somehow we manage to have frequent dinners (good dinners, I might add, not dry chicken and cold green beans), and while most of the officers do very well in ritual, the PMs don’t tsk and cluck when the JS or JD flubs a line. Somehow it works for us. It must b e, because we have a lot of members that have affiliated form other lodges, simply because they enjoy the atmosphere.

    I’m not picking on you, specifically. I know that in some states, the GLs are ridiculously ham-handed in making up rules. But that will only change when you get enough people giving them feedback. Yeah, sure, one or two guys complaining to the DDGM will be ignored, but 20 guys? A whole lodge? Four or five lodges? Maybe they’ll think it’s a movement…

    A movement, eh?

    And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
    study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I’m singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you’re in a situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say “Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.” And walk out.

    You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and
    they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out? And friends, they may thinks it’s a movement.

    And that’s what it is, the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar.

  7. Know what I’ve decided, Bro. Beehive? That I don’t want to read about crappy Masonry anymore.

    For the last five years or so that I’ve been blogging, it seems like every other post I read is somebody complaining about the state of Masonry. Okay, your lodge sucks, your Grand Lodge sucks, we get it, really. But you can only complain about it for so long before other people start wondering why you bother to stay in an organization that engenders so much bitterness.

    If your lodge is that bad, then make a point of traveling to other lodges to find brothers who are interested in doing things better. Start your own lodge, or affiliate with a dying lodge and bring it back to life with better meals, better ritual, and a more pleasant and accepting culture.

    Does my lodge have problems? Sure – most of the people are working and have families. But somehow we manage to have frequent dinners (good dinners, I might add, not dry chicken and cold green beans), and while most of the officers do very well in ritual, the PMs don’t tsk and cluck when the JS or JD flubs a line. Somehow it works for us. It must b e, because we have a lot of members that have affiliated form other lodges, simply because they enjoy the atmosphere.

    I’m not picking on you, specifically. I know that in some states, the GLs are ridiculously ham-handed in making up rules. But that will only change when you get enough people giving them feedback. Yeah, sure, one or two guys complaining to the DDGM will be ignored, but 20 guys? A whole lodge? Four or five lodges? Maybe they’ll think it’s a movement…

    A movement, eh?

    And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
    study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I’m singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you’re in a situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say “Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.” And walk out.


    You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and
    they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out? And friends, they may thinks it’s a movement.


    And that’s what it is, the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar.

  8. If the above is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it’s done very poorly. I can’t tell what’s the rant and what’s the over-the-top sarcasm. The truth is that many American Lodge halls have multiple Lodges, OES, and youth groups. They rent to whomever they like as long as they pay a deposit, and there are no liquor restrictions (because that pertains to during meetings only). I know of plenty of buildings that have storefronts downstairs rented out to businesses like liquor stores, hobby shops, and boutiques. Conversely, many rent space from someone else, or don’t have the sort of building that lends itself to outside income.

    My point is that what you say may be true where you are, but every GL is different, and complaining about yours to everybody else doesn’t make a difference. We’re not members, so your GL could care less what we have to say, and obviously, your own members don’t mind, except for you. DDs and GMs *should* outdo each other (in good ways), and I notice you don’t specify how they outdo one another. This vague moaning and groaning just simply isn’t appropriate.

    I really have to echo the above sentiment. If you don’t like anything about Masonry, why stay? A demit is very simple, and saves you money. Frankly, it is not appropriate to remain with an organization simply to badmouth it. If you don’t like your GL, quit. If you don’t like your Lodge, quit.

    Now, if in fact this is a “I’m taking my ball and going home” type of statement, then perhaps you should have kept it to yourself. If it isn’t, then you really need to learn how to frame an argument properly – real rhetoric is understandable divorced from any context because it is self-contained and therefore provides its own. Thomas Paine does this well, and you could take a lesson from him (unless you want to resort to Latin oratory). The intent of this article is far too unclear for its own (or anybody else’s) good for it to be disseminated in public.

  9. Mark, in some US states, Freemasons are not allowed to have anything to do with certain activities. For example, not only are lodges forbidden to rent to any party that might have alcohol, members themselves can not work (for example) as alcohol distributors. In Conn, lodges can’t rent out to, say, stag parties, but many will rent to women holding showers. Presumably this is because we dont’ expect women to get rip-snortin’ drunk and to tear the place up, or to drive off drunk and have an accident.

    And yes, some GLs are ridiculous with respect to what the members can or can’t do. That said, it’s completely unfair to paint all Freemasonry with the same brush. Conn is more progressive than many states with regard to the latitude that members and individual lodges have, so my own experience of Masonry really doesn’t resemble much of what I happen to see on teh tubez.

  10. I have to agree with Tom, leave and create something better (for you.) Mainstream nor PHA own anything anyway. It can all be created again.

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