From the East – October 2018

Dear Brothers,
This was not the message I had originally plan to write. As a matter of fact, I wrestled with whether or not to write this message as I didn’t want to appear preachy or have it come across as an editorial.
Several weeks back, I saw an interview on television, by a rather well-known person, and they said something that kind of, struck me. When asking about what they thought of a certain person, they described them in the following way (and I am paraphrasing) “I think he is a good person, somewhat successful, I guess, not very wealthy”. The phrase that struck me was “somewhat successful, not very wealthy”. Isn’t it true though, that as a society, we tend to judge a person’s success by their wealth and their accumulation of stuff (houses, cars, jewelry, etc.).

It is not what we are taught and believe as a Fraternity and as Freemasons. When preparing a candidate, we tell them that the Fraternity considers each of its members to be equal within the lodge. That it is a person’s inner qualifications and not their external wealth and honors that qualify them to be a member of our Fraternity. Yet, don’t we still find ourselves judging a person’s success by their wealth and worldly honors. I know I still tend to do.
So, let’s do a better job both in and out of the Fraternity. In these times when people hide behind social media to judge others, let us not forget the principals of our Fraternity, and extend them to all human beings.

See you in lodge.
Fraternally,
Daniel E. O’Brien
Worshipful Master