| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on July 18, 2002 |
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During the end of April and the Month of May, Los Altos Lodge will be participating in two different events in support of our public schools. The first event is on April 30 at the Palo Alto Masonic Hall. This evening is being co-sponsored by our Lodge. Our lodge will be making a presentation to a representative from the Los Altos School District. Please plan to attend and show that Los Altos is interested in our public schools. For more details contact any of our officers or me (or look in the April Trestleboard). Our next public schools event will be the presentation of our Lodge Scholarship at the Los Altos High School scholarship night (May 22 at 7:00 PM). Please consider attending.
Since the last trestleboard went to press, we initiated Craig Schoonover. Welcome to the fraternity Brother Schoonover. Please introduce yourself to Craig the next opportunity you get.
In conferring the degrees recently, several brothers have noticed the varying degree of proficiency of ritual of our degree officers. Please remember that our goal is good ritual. Everyone has a bad night occasionally, please be understanding. I personally enjoy performing and hearing good ritual and suspect that there are many others who feel the same. When you're part of a progressive line of officers (that changes every year) it sometimes seems as though you progress to the next step just when you are starting to master the work. With specialists in the roles, you could master the work and deliver the ritual with a little bit of extra polish. If you would like to be part of a degree team (any degree, any part) please let me know. Our practices are always open to our brothers. Please feel free to come. As a further request, let me remind you that you need not be a Past Master to be part of a degree!
Members who do not want to get "in the line," would still be able to help give our candidates the best experience. I've recently come across an article on Masonic Ritual by Arthur Reilly, PM of Argenta Lodge #3 (Utah) that I enjoyed, so I am having it reprinted herein.
As a final topic for this article I am sad to report that the economy is having a direct impact on our lodge. Several of our members have found themselves victims of downsizing. If you have recently been offered a job, or have had an experience with a placement service, resume writing agency or some other method of job hunting that produced results, please send me a note (or give me a phone call) so I can share the information.
Fraternally,
Robert Lake
Master
I was very impressed with the turn-out for our 1st degree on March 25th. We had 31 officers, members, and visitors present when Craig Schoonover received his 1st degree of Masonry. Congratulations on becoming a Mason, Brother Craig! I hope your Masonic education from your candidate's coach (me) is rewarding and also please supplement my knowledge with many, many of your fellow Los Altos Brethren. They know much more than I respecting the mysteries of Masonry. I, and soon you, will realize how fortunate we are to be among scholarly Brethren of Los Altos Lodge. Pick their brains and challenge their minds, you will find your/our journey very interesting and rewarding. Congratulations are in order for Brother Batson who received his Fellowcraft degree on March 11th. Here too was a great turn-out and support by Los Altos Brethren for our candidates. Worshipful Buschek delivered a very nice middle chamber lecture. One of the finest I have encountered. Great Job Worshipful Greg!
Now we are embarking on our next journey, that of the 3rd degree. Be prepared to come join us in May for a 3rd & 2nd degree, tentatively May 13th & 20th respectively.
This month I have focused my Masonic education on the Fellowcraft degree. I came across several articles regarding the Fellowcraft degree and its meanings. These articles are excerpts from a variety of Masonic sites on the World Wide Web including the Grand Lodges of Arkansas and Iowa. I have included them for your education as well.
FELLOWCRAFT MASON
As a Fellowcraft Mason, you have passed through its ceremonies, assumed its obligations, are registered as such in the books of the Lodge, and can sit in either a Lodge of Entered Apprentice Masons or of Fellowcraft Masons, but not in a Lodge of Master Masons. Doubtless you recognized in the Fellowcraft Degree a call for learning, an urge to study. Truly, here is a great Degree-one to muse upon and to study. One to see many, many times and still not come to the end of its stirring teachings.
There are two great ideas embodied in the Fellowcraft Degree. They are not the only two ideas in it, to be sure; but if you understand these, they will lead you into an understanding of the others. But before we turn to these two main ideas, exactly what is a Fellowcraft?
Fellowcraft is one of a large number of terms that have a technical meaning peculiar to Freemasonry and is seldom or never found elsewhere. In the dictionary sense it is not difficult to define. A "craft" was an organization of the skilled workmen in some trade or calling, for example, masons, carpenters, painters, sculptors, barbers, etc. A "fellow" meant one whom held full membership in such a craft, was obligated to the same duties, and allowed the same privileges. Since the skilled crafts are no longer organized as they once were, the term is no longer in use with its original sense.
It is more difficult to give it the larger meaning as it is found in Freemasonry, but we may be assisted to that end by noting that with us it possesses two quite separate and distinct meanings, one of which we may call the Operative meaning, the other the Speculative.
We can first consider the OPERATIVE meaning. In its operative period, Freemasons were skilled workmen engaged in some branch of the building trade, or art of architecture; as such, like all other skilled workmen, they had an organized craft of their own. The general form in which this craft was organized was called a "guild."
A Lodge was a local and usually temporary organization within the guild. This guild had officers, laws, rules, regulations, and customs of its own, rigorously binding on all members equally. It divided its membership into two grades, the lower of which was composed of apprentices.
The Operative Freemasons recruited their membership from qualified lads of twelve to fifteen years of age. When such a boy proved acceptable to the members, he was required to swear to be obedient, upon which he was bound over to some Master Mason. After a time, if he proved worthy, his name was formally entered in the books of the Lodge, thereby giving him his title of Entered Apprentice.
For about seven years this boy lived with his master, gave his master implicit obedience in all things, and toiled much but received no pay except his board, lodging, and clothing. In the Lodge life, he held a place equally subordinate because he could not attend a Lodge of Master Masons, had no voice or vote, and could not hold office. All this means that during his long apprenticeship, he was really a bondservant with many duties, few rights, and very little freedom. At the end of his apprenticeship, he was once more examined in Lodge. If his record was good, if he could prove his proficiency under test and the members voted in his favor, he was released from his bonds and made a full member of the Craft, with the same duties, rights, and privileges as all others.
In the sense that he had thus become a full member, he was called a "Fellow of the Craft." In the sense that he had mastered the art and no longer needed a teacher, he was called a "Master Mason." So far as his grade was concerned, these two terms meant the same thing. Such was the Operative meaning of the Fellowcraft.
We come next to the meaning of the term Speculative Masonry. Operative Freemasonry began to decline about the time of the Reformation when Lodges became few in number and small in membership.
After a time, a few of the Lodges in England began to admit into membership men with no intention of practicing the trade of Operative Masonry, but were attracted by the Craft's antiquity and for social reasons. These were called SPECULATIVE Masons.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Speculatives had so increased their numbers that at last they gained control, and during the 1st quarter of that century, they completely transformed the Craft into the SPECULATIVE Fraternity, as we know it today. Although they adhered as closely as possible to the old customs, they were compelled to make some radical changes in order to fit the Society for its new purposes.
One of the most important of these changes was to abandon the old rule of dividing the members into two grades or degrees, and to adopt the new rule of dividing it into three grades or degrees. It was necessary to find a name for the new degree. Therefore, the degrees of symbolic Masonry became known as the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason.
Symbols, Ideas, and Allegories of the Fellowcraft Degree:
Previously, it was asserted that there were two great ideas embodied in the Fellowcraft degree. We now turn our attention to these ideas. One of these is the idea of adulthood. Whereas the Entered Apprentice represents youth standing at the portals of life, his eyes on the rising sun, the Fellowcraft is a man in the prime of life-experienced, strong, resourceful, and able to bear the heat and burden of the day.
When he comes to experience adulthood, a man discovers that the mere fact that he is forty or fifty years of age has little to do with it. Adulthood is a condition, a state of life, a situation charged with a set of duties.
What does the Second degree have to say to the Fellowcraft, whether in Masonry or in the world at large? The answer to that brings us to our second idea: that the Fellowcraft may so equip himself that he will prove adequate to the tasks which will be laid upon him.
What is that equipment? The degree gives us at least three answers. The first is that the Fellowcraft must gain experience from contact with the realities of existence. You will recall what was said about the five senses. Needless to say, that portion of the Winding Stair or Staircase Lecture was not intended to be a disquisition on either physiology or psychology.
It is symbolism, and it represents what a man learns through seeing, touching, tasting, hearing, and smelling. In short, experience from year to year until at last through the very contacts of his senses with objects which make up the world he has come to understand that world, how to deal with it, how to master it at that point where he stands.
The second answer is education. After all, an individual's possible experience is extremely limited, circumscribed by the length of his Cable Tow (refer to the March 2002 Westerly Wind, Los Altos Lodge No. 712 Trestleboard).
To our own store of hard-won experience we must add the experience of others, supplementing our experience by the information of countless men brought to us by the knowledge taught us by our teachers.
Consider the Apprentice in the days when Masons were builders of great and costly structures. He was a mere boy, entirely ignorant of the secrets and arts of the builders; and yet, after seven years or so, he was able to produce his master's piece and to take his rightful place at any task to which the Worshipful Master might appoint him.
All this was accomplished by teaching-by the Master Masons about him guiding his clumsy hands and passing on to him in many, many lessons what they had been years in acquiring.
[Due to space limitations, we will continue this article in the June issue of this trestleboard, where we will find many more interesting and detailed explanations of the Fellowcraft Degree.]
Fraternally,
Richard G. Weyers
Senior Warden
In Search of Light - Why Ritual?<
By Arthur Reilly, P.M., Chaplin
Argenta, Lodge #3, F & A M of Utah
When people learn that I'm a Mason, one of the first questions usually asked is about our ritual work.
For many Masons, their entire involvement with the fraternity is their participation in putting on degree work - we all know Brethren we only see when they come out to take part in a degree. My guess is that even these Brethren wouldn't be able to tell anyone what it is about the ritual they find important enough to devote time to memorization, practice and meetings.
"Ritual is important. It is fulfilling and meaningful. It is beautiful. It is symbolic, mnemonic, and instructive. It establishes protocols. It expresses, defines, and clarifies conditions. It is essential to, and ingredient within, civilization. Similarly, do not overlook the significance and value of symbolism." - John Lange
Our lives are full of ritual, and when that ritual is disrupted many of us feel frustration. We pledge to the flag, say grace before a meal, clock in at work, and enjoy a morning cup of coffee while reading the newspaper. In all of these, we are CONNECTING with something outside ourselves.
"Essentially, you have no choice in this; it is not whether you do ritual or don't do ritual; because one cannot be here on this earth with other fellow mammals/humans and not do ritual. It's the way nature designed us to communicate with one another. Your choice lies in what kind of ritual. If you want to do rituals designed to keep humans apart, to encourage competition and anger and hatred then there's that kind of ritual. However, the ritual I am dealing with concerns putting all parts of the human together deep inside the individual, putting humans together in society, and facilitating human interactions . . ." - Dolores LaChapelle
Modern society has given up many of it's rituals, and individuals often feel fragmented, without connections. Most of us no longer know our neighbors. We no longer spend time chatting with the barber, butcher, green grocer, minister or people living nearby. Our friendships are temporary, based on co-workers. One brother of my Lodge, Argenta #3, whom I never met, reportedly said, "When I was working I thought I had many friends. When I retired I found out I'd had a lot of acquaintances." His realization lead to the Argenta Friday morning 10 a.m. coffee klatch at Marie Callender's restaurant - a ritual now going on 15 years old!
Next time someone asks you about Masonic ritual, tell them this . . . Ritual defines us, tells us who we are and who we want to be. Ritual binds us together, not just because of a shared experience, but because it's the human way to make connections, to tell us all where we fit in. Ritual is the glue that holds all societies together, and without it any society is doomed to fall apart. Freemasonry is one of the last bastions of this kind of ritual.
As a man, you get to choose which rituals are more important - stopping off at the local tavern after work to have a beer, taking out the garbage after dinner every evening, shouting at the TV when your team makes a bad play - or the rituals of attending religious services, of listening to your child or grandchild tell you about their day, and of spending time with your Lodge brothers.
We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about us, the USA. Editorial from Romanian Newspaper: When you think the US isn't thought well of all over the world, read this editorial from a Romanian Newspaper.
Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are.
Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about.
The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.
After the first moments of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car as if the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!".
Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different TV channels.
There were Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Sylvester Stalone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together.
The American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul.
What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I don't know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn't sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you green with envy because you weren't able to sing for your country without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests.
I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.
How on earth were they able to bow before a fellow human? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like common places. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.
Only freedom can work such miracles
Grandchild's View of Retirement - or "Sun City here I come!!!"
[The following was submitted by our Tiler, Brother David Kimball, and I thought you would enjoy it (Most of us being Grandparents that is.)- EDITOR] After the spring break, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent the holidays. One youngster offered the following:
We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a nice big brick house, but grandpa got retarded, and they moved to Florida. Now they live in a place with lots of other Grandmas and Grandpas. They live in a tin box, and have rocks painted green to look like grass.
They ride around in huge tricycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore.
They go to a big building called the wrecked center. They must have fixed it because it looks pretty good now.
They play games and do exercises there, but they don't do them very well.
There is a swimming pool, too, but they all jump up and down in it with their hats on. I guess they don't know how to swim.
At the gate, there is a doll house with a little old man who sits in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape.
Sometimes though, they do manage to sneak out. Then they go cruising in their golf carts.
Grandma used to bake cookies and other neat things, but I guess she forgot how. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out, and they eat the same thing every night, something called "Early Bird," whatever that is.
Some of the people can't get past the old man in the doll house. So the ones that escape bring food back to the wrecked center and call it pot luck. My Grandma says Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment, and says that I should work hard so I can also be retarded someday too.
When I earn my retardment, I want to be the old man in the doll house, then I'll let people out so they can visit their grandchildren.
~ Author unknown ~
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