On the Anniversary of my Third Degree.

On April 20, 1966 I was raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason.

This is a speech which I gave which sums up my thoughts about being a Mason.

Re-Obligation Night (Speech given in Newton, Iowa) 3/30/09

Worshipful Master, Most Worshipful Brother Al, I thank you for asking me to share some thoughts this evening. You know, I knew Al before he was Most Worshipful…Heck I knew him before he was Most Illustrious. I am flattered to think that of all the hundreds of people he could have asked to speak to you this evening he chose me. But wait a minute. I am not sure he didn’t ask those other guys and they just turned him down, So he probably said, Let’s just ask Simser. So here I am.

This evening we have, each of us re taken the obligations that we took when we entered this great fraternity. In doing so we reaffirmed our commitment to this society of obligated men. What that means is different for each of us. For me one of the things it does is that it ties me to the members of my family who were Masons before me.

My father was not a Mason but both of my grandfathers were as were all four of my great-grandfathers. It has been a connecting point to me to think of them kneeling at that altar in that uncomfortable position saying those archaic words. Probably not understanding much more of them than I did when I first took them.

Whether or not we understand them they certainly put us under a duty to our Brothers, to the fraternity and to God. They also teach us how to behave towards each other and those who are not members of the fraternity. We are obligated.

What is an obligation?

An obligation is a requirement to take some course of action, whether legal or moral. Obligations vary from person to person: Obligations are generally granted in return for an increase in an individual’s rights or power.

There are several definitions
1. The act of binding oneself by a social, legal, or moral tie. …
3. The constraining power of a promise, contract, law, or sense of duty.
a. Something owed as payment or in return for a special service or favor.
b. The service or favor for which one is indebted to another.
Obligations bind us to one another and place us in each other’s debt. What we owe because we have taken an obligation is also owed to us by others who have taken the same obligation. It is a mighty cord that ties us together in the bonds of the fraternity.

We all know people who ignore their obligations. The Order of the Eastern Star has a line in its ritual that I love. “Woe unto those who seek to take upon themselves obligations lightly and forthwith forget them, it calls them “faithless and insincere.”

Most of us try to take our obligations seriously. We attempt to live up to not only the specific, stated obligations but also the implied, unstated ones.

What about those Masonic Obligations?

In the First degree one mainly promises not to divulge the “secrets” - we are reminded that if we were to do so we would be unworthy. There isn’t really much of a problem with doing that. I mean, what are these secrets anyway? I don’t think many of us really understand what those secrets are and we are over zealous about what happens during the degree and we won’t tell anyone anything about what has happened during the ceremonies of that night. We all know the story of the Entered Apprentice who went into the bathroom where his wife heard him muttering to himself. When asked why he was in there talking he stated that it was the only “tyled” room in the housel

But, if you stop to think about it in the open Ceremony of Installation the working tools are all explained and if you listen to the Master’s promises you see the values of our fraternity – right out there in the open. No secrets there.

In the Fellowcraft degree our obligations are increased. We reaffirm the obligations already taken and add to them that we will commit our time to the Lodge, obey the rules, deal honestly with the Lodge and our Brothers, etc, An increase in our obligation as there is an increase in our power and privileges.

As we advance to the Master Mason Degree we once again recommit ourselves to the previous obligations and then we add to them and place ourselves under more duty to the Craft, and to the brothers and their families. We add to it the duty to protect and defend the members and to come to their aid. We move our obligation to include not only the Lodge but to the members – the individual brother. We become so closely tied to him that he is as close to us as a member of our own family.

As a member of that family the obligations are reciprocal. They work both ways. We are obligated to each other. These are not just words we recite. They are in a very real sense a binding contract and we need to live up to them and follow though no matter what.

In every organization there are going to be those who do not live up to the standards that are set by the obligations assumed. I am not sure that I always live up to my Obligation. I try, but being human, I do not always achieve the goal I set for myself. There are a lot of “brothers” who are not “brotherly.” Sometimes ego gets in the way and we think we are the most important Mason in the room. – Jerry Marsengill used to quote this poem to me:

There Is No Indispensable Man
by Saxon N. White Kessinger, Copyright 1959

Sometime when you're feeling important;
Sometime when your ego's in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you'll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There's no indispensable man.

Worshipful Masters have a tendency to think of themselves as very “special.” Sometimes they need to listen to the charge to the Senior Warden that tells us that he who has high office in Masonry is there to serve the rest.

Officers also take an Obligation to perform their duties and live up to the expectations of the office. One of the most important and interesting things about Masonry is that we seem to take an obligation every time we turn around. We take them when we join. We take them when we are installed into office. As we join other Masonic organizations we add to our obligations and in some of them we promise to forgive trespasses and to obey our superiors and to fight for American principles and on and on and on. There are, perhaps, too many of them. I am sure I have taken over 50 Obligations in my Masonic career.

There is a “law of diminishing returns” I learned about in high school. It says in essence that if we have too much of something we tend to devalue it. I wonder if Obligations are like that. Do we take so many Obligations that we devalue them? I hope not.

Timothy Bonney gave me the phrase “society of obligated men”. For some reason it resonated with me. It brought me up short as I thought about it. For the most part I had not thought much about “being under an obligation.” It just never occurred to me. I love the fraternity - In many ways the members are closer to me than some members of my own family. I would do almost anything for them. Just as in any family there are times when we disagree and when ego and personality get in the way. But the bottom line is that we take those obligations very seriously, and we try our best to live them.

As a Mason I was once asked by my great aunt “What are you doing for your Blue Lodge?” I was involved in the York Rite and Eastern Star and I was pretty much letting the Lodge take care of itself. I had been writing her about what I was doing in those Organizations and she asked me that question. That was a wake-up call for me. I went then and asked for the only office I have ever asked for in Freemasonry. I asked to start “through the line.” – I did it to fulfill an obligation. How well I did that I will leave up to others to say. I will say that it was the most satisfying 6 years I ever spent in Lodge and I wear my Past Master’s Ring proudly.

It was very interesting for me recently to look through the Scottish Rite Library in Des Moines and come across some books with some old engravings showing Masons dressed in clothing of the 1700’s participating in degrees. I realized that they, too, took those obligations and that we had a bond. That bond which connects us is the obligation that we took at the altar of Freemasonry. That Obligation which made us Masons, that tied us to one another in bonds of fraternal love and affection, that connects us by invisible ties, that inspire us to live nobler lives, to do more for our fellow man and to improve the world in which we live.
Recently I heard a paper in which Brother John Klaus stated. “Ritual is not Masonry and Masonry is not Ritual.” It got me to thinking about what is Masonry. What makes us Masons?

We start calling a man a Mason the minute he takes his obligation. I would argue that taking or re-taking the obligation does not make you a mason. Living the obligation does.

Tonight we have been reminded of those obligations. P.G.H.P. Tom Dean said” When you have Masonry in your heart and mind you will live your obligation! Now I challenge each of you who have been re-obligated to go out and live the obligations of Freemasonry. When you first took your obligation you did it without prior knowledge of its contents. Tonight you knew what was in them and you chose to re-obligate yourself. Living that choice will make your lives better lives and that will make this world a better world.