Thursday

As usual a busy day. I had coffee with my friend Dallas this morning. She has been out of town and I am glad she is back. I missed her. Then I went to the doctor and he was pleased with my blood sugars. Since August I have lost 42 pounds. I am not going to tell you my weight now but I am pleased. I want to lose a whole lot more but I know it is better to take it off slowly rather than to hurry. I am thinking that a bicycle would be a good thing to have.

This afternoon I spent a lot of time getting ready for the Lodge meeting. My printer jammed and I had to spend about 30 minutes getting that fixed.

We had a Master Mason Degree tonight and it was very nice. We also had some good discussion after the meeting and my friend Taner challenged an assertion that I have made to many people and not one has argued with me or shown me the error of my ways. Taner put some thought into what I had said and was able to give me a much better argument about the meaning of theThird Degree than anyone ever has. I really respect that. Masonry used to be a philosophical organization. There are layers upon layers of meaning in it and the only way to grow in it is to discuss it and cause people to think.

Now I am not saying that I had an ulterior motive in challenging the statement on the little card we have to read before the degree but I am really excited that it opened a dialogue and enabled me to think. I am not going to stop making my assertion about the sentence on the card. Maybe someone else will challenge me on what I say and thereby think about the meaning behind the degree. Masonry is so much more than just a group of guys getting together to put a degree on perfectly according to ritual. We should delve into the meaning. It is really a mystery play which is meant to teach us great life lessons.