| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on February 11, 2000 |
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Master - From The East
Our next Lodge meeting will be our Stated Meeting on May 3rd. Dinner will begin at 6:30 PM sharp, and Lodge will begin at 7:30 PM sharp. Please note that these events will begin on time: happy daylight savings time! Our Lodge events are progressing nicely, and we are now in the final planning stages for all of our 1999 events. Please let us know your ideas so we can include them in our activities schedule! Our full schedule is posted on our Lodge website, and is available to be mailed to you upon request.
The month of May traditionally celebrates "Cinco de Mayo," commerating the Mexican Indian victory over the invading French Army at Puebla Mexico in 1862.
I wish to thank Brother Luis Orozco for writing a very good review of this holiday in last year's Trestleboard, which will be posted soon on our website. The holiday celebrates Mexico's self-initiated liberation from foreign financial debt, as well as a physical war for continued independence. Our dinner will be of a Mexican theme so bring and wear your Mexican hats, serapes, and clothes (no, you don't need to bring any batches...).
Events this month include a 3rd Degree/2nd Section practice on May 10 at 7:30 PM, our Temple Board meeting on May 12 at 7:30 PM, the Junior Warden's Retreat May 14-16, our Lodge Scholarship presentation at Los Alto High School on May 25, and the OAM on May 26 at Fraternity Lodge, 3rd Degree/Lecture, with dinner at 6:30 PM. Our Los Altos Masonic Lodge Educator Scholarship will award a $1,000.00 scholarship to a fortunate graduating senior at Los Altos High School on Tuesday, May 25. Please contact me if your wish to attend the presentation with me.
Our April "Receiving More Light" function was very informative as David Anderson, Maurice Dunbar, and Charles Westbrook, chosen at random, read the first three questions and answers in the book: "101 Questions About Freemasonry." These members did receive "More Light," in the form of Masonic flashlights attached to key chains! This function will be repeated at each Stated Meeting this year! So, come to Lodge, join in the fun, and receive More Light!
We received a very nice "Thank You" card and a donation from Mrs. Barbara Collier, thanking the Lodge for hosting and providing the Masonic Memorial Service for her father, Edwin William Reith. She writes: "We wish to thank the Los Altos Masons for assisting with my father's memorial. He would have been pleased with your efforts."
The Lodge has sponsored a Los Altos American Little League Team this year, and they are the "Marlins," in the "Farm" group, composed of seven teams. We expect to attend their final game and participate in their "After Season Party." The "Pirates" are in the same group, sponsored by the Los Altos Village Association Perhaps we should encourage some friendly rivalry?
Due to problems with our Lodge's database, the Trestleboard was not sent out to our Lodge Widows during the past few months. This problem has been corrected, and an apology letter with all of the 1999 Trestleboards has been sent out to our widows.
Also, we are in the final stages of updating our entire Lodge database, and we are planning to release a new Lodge Roster to each member and widow by the summer.
Grand Lodge reminder: May has been declared "Masonic Homes Endowment Month!" These Homes are fundamental to our fraternity. The joy that giving to this most worthy cause brings to each of us is the precious coin by which we are repaid, and repaid a thousand fold. No other investment that we make at anytime, anywhere, will bear such interest.
Reminder:http://www.jps.net/losaltos712/
[Now http://www.calodges.org/no712/; 2/11/2000]
is now the new URL and website address for the lodge. We are in the process of adding new CGI scripts to the webpages to allow site access counting, a guest book, and other nifty options. The website also includes our 1999 activities schedule, a page containing articles of interest, and links to local Lodges, local Masons, our Silicon Valley Lodge's website and SCWEEK calendar, CA Grand Lodge, and several other Masonic organizations. The After Dinner Program for May 3 will be Bon Bons & the movie "First Wives Club," a humorous movie, highly recommended, and chosen by our events review committee. I look forward to greeting you in Lodge!
Fraternally,
Patrick Bailey
Master
PS:
Silicon Valley Masonic Officers Association Website (SCWEEK):
http://www.netnology.com/masonry/html/scweek.html
Senior Warden - The Westerly Wind
Freemasonry is so large, and yet so small. One can bump into a brother at the most unexpected time. This happened to me just recently - Saturday, March 20th to be exact. My son Jason, a Mason less than one year, had not had a chance to attend any of the Grand Master's Regional Town Hall meetings, so I thought it would be fun for him to meet the Grand Master, up close and personal.
On Saturday, March 20th, there was a Town Hall meeting at Chico, California, so we left the day before, drove to Chico, and stayed at an inexpensive motel. We were both pretty tired from the drive, so we quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, we arose early and went to the Masonic Center, which is a really beautiful building, very modern, and extremely large. (I mean, really BIG !!!) Our lodge room in Los Altos would fit into their lodge room about three times, and our dining room would fit into their dining hall about ten times. In addition, they have a large walk-in freezer, a beautiful kitchen, conference room, two spacious Masonic offices, and much more, all elegantly decorated and spotlessly clean. (You get the picture, I hope.)
Unbeknownst to me and Jason, two living Past Grand Masters of California are members of the Chico-Leland Stanford Lodge No. 111: Theodore (Ted) Meriam (1964), and Charles Alexander (1995). Both were in attendance for the Town Hall meeting, and Most Worshipful Ted Meriam was the host for our Grand Master, Most Worshipful Melville Nahin. Two things about Past Grand Masters became immediately apparent - their love for our fraternity, and their great sense of humor. The meeting was interesting, with serious aspects, and a lot of fun and fellowship too.
But to add to the pleasant surprise of meeting two Past Grand Masters was another really unexpected surprise. Before the meeting started there always are free doughnuts and coffee. So Jason and I were busily availing ourselves of the goodies, when I heard a real familiar. right next to me say, "Hello Robert!" I turned and looked, and there, 250 miles from home, was the Inspector of the 170th Masonic District, MY DISTRICT, Worshipful Dan McDaniel!!! (Darn, now we had to behave ourselves!) It turns out he has relatives in the Chico area, and decided to come to the Town Hall meeting, not expecting to see anybody from Los Altos there, either. Most of us at some time have had a similar experience, running into a close friend at a far away place, so I guess this experience was not all that rare, but it just proved to me what a small world we live in. Your officers are ready to confer degrees! We could use a petition or two. Do you happen to know a good man who might enjoy being a Mason? I would be happy to speak with him - just pass to me his name and phone number.
Fraternally,
Robert Martin, P.M.
Senior Warden
Lodge Inspector - "1999 Grand Greetings"
It is again my pleasure to stand before you tonight on this the occasion of my official visit to your lodge, and I bring you greetings from our Grand Master, the Most Worshipful Melville H. Nahin. I want to spend some time with you this evening examining most Worshipful Brother Nahin's theme for the year, and then I'll throw in a few thoughts of my own.
"The best of times is now-what a wonderful world." Are the best of times really now? Do we ever long for the "Good Old Days?" What was so good about those days, anyway? Let's review a bit. We'll slip back in time to "The Great Depression," which is about as far back as any but a few people remember: Bread lines. Joblessness. Polio. And then there was WWII, four years and hundreds of thousands of American lives. Korea, three years and another 50,000 lives. The drug and free-love decade. Vietnam, ten years and another 50,000 lives. Where in all that were the "Good Old Days?" True, there were some good memories in yesterday, but all in all, I'll take today!
But what about tomorrow? Isn't tomorrow when we do things that we don't want to do today? But tomorrow often times never comes, and the best of times really is today. Tomorrow is a time to plan for and dream about, but today is the time we have to live, to accomplish, to pursue, and yes, even to love.
And what are these things that we didn't have time to do today? Do we have time to be Masons? Do we have time to come to lodge and support its activities? Do we have time to be members of grand lodge and attend its communications? Do we even have time to tell our friends about Masonry?
We lament the fact that our numbers are dwindling, but how many of us take the time to be Masons in more than just name? Brethren, to borrow from our bumper sticker slogan: "To Be One, Be One."
Now, let me address a topic that I discussed last year during my official visit. That topic is the Masonic Service Bureaus. The Santa Clara Valley Masonic Service Bureau is supported by the following lodges: San Jose 10, Friendship 210, Charity Jarman 362, Fraternity 399, Golden Rule 479, and Willow Glen 676, fewer than half the lodges in the association. Again I ask, why is this? Consider what Masonic Service Bureaus are for. Their purpose is described in section 28020 of the California Masonic Code.
Briefly, they are to relieve distressed sojourning Masons and their widows and orphans, arrange and conduct funerals of such Masons, make courtesy investigations, visit sick sojourning Masons, and operate a clearing house for applicants for degrees and dual or plural membership for lodges in the area of the bureau.
A Masonic Service Bureau thus performs many useful functions that would otherwise be difficult for lodges to handle in large metropolitan areas where there is overlapping territory. Lodges may say, "we don't need this service. We can handle these problems in our own area." Listen to what you are saying. When that statement is made, the good of the many is being subordinated by the will of the few. A lodge that does not support the service bureau is allowing other lodges to assume its responsibilities without a commensurate compensation to them. The cost is modest compared to the good that it accomplishes. The last assessment from the Santa Clara Bureau was 47 cents per lodge member. I don't know of any lodge that couldn't afford that. Brethren, I urge you to support the Santa Clara Masonic Service Bureau.
Let me suggest, when you consider participating in programs and projects outside of the lodge, that the question "what does this do for our lodge?" is the wrong question. Look beyond your front door. The question should be, "what does this do for Freemasonry?"
In closing, I would remind you again of our Grand Master's slogan for the Year: "The best of times is now - What a wonderful world!" Brethren, these are the best of times. Let's unite in Freemasonry and not waste a moment of them. Thank You.
Daniel R. McDaniel, PM
Inspector, 170th Masonic District
(author unknown) - "His name is Bill..."
His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant. Kind of esoteric and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students, but are not sure how to go about it.
One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.
Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit and when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, trust me, this had never happened in this church before!) By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.
About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill.
Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane and as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves, "You can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor? It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The people are thinking. The minister can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.
And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with him so he won't be alone. Everyone chokes up with emotion. When the minister gains control he says, "What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.
--- ----- -------
Be careful how you live.
You may be the only Bible
Some people will ever read!
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