I'm Your Friend/Masonic Rant

Just let me know if

ANYONE

messes up your day today!

I GOT YOU COVERED !!




I got the above from Sam yesterday. Sam always brightens my day with an e-mail or two. I met Sam at Acanthus Lodge and he is one of the reasons I like going down there. There are a lot of other reasons. the Brothers of Acanthus Lodge are a great group of guys. Of course there is one there who claims he is in the "witness protection program" and every time I take a picture of him he puts his hand up in front of his face. I have fun trying to catch a snap of him when he isn't looking. I get one or two of them.

I have only been going down there for about a year now (Actually it was on April 10, 2007 that I was voted in) and I have really enjoyed it. For awhile both of my Lodges were very busy and there was degree work almost every week in both lodges. That has kind of dropped off and we are not getting the petitions in Arcadia that we were getting and I am not sure why but Acanthus has not had any either. I haven't been down for a couple of months and I miss it. Last month I had another event to go to and I missed the stated meeting.

They have a meal every Monday night (which is hard on the officers) but I don't go down just to eat as the price of gas is so high and I have to go down there (to Des Moines) at least once a week as it is that I won't go just for a meal. (Unless it would be to eat out if I was invited to go to a nice restaurant for some reason or other.) I get about 17 miles per gallon on my car. It is 35 or 40 miles each was so if you figure 80 miles round trip it costs about $15 every time I go down.

The camaraderie that you feel when you go to Lodge is something that you just don't get anywhere else. There are guys there who I feel very close to. I miss them. I am feeling lonely for them right now. Fortunately I also have that same feeling with the Brothers of Arcadia Lodge but I really don't know why I can't have both.

I see so many guys from all over Des Moines at the York and Scottish Rite and that is one of the reasons I enjoy them. Some people criticize Masons for getting involved in too many Orders. Not me. There is something special about each of them and the guys involved in the York and Scottish Rites are also in their Blue Lodge working. In fact most of the officers of Both of my Lodges belong to both Rites and are also active in them.

So why am I writing this post. I guess to say that if we aren't having degree work in our Lodges we should be doing something else. Mondays at Acanthus and Thursdays at Arcadia. Something should be happening. What? Well we could have a Masonic Book Club and read a Masonic Book such as King Solomon's Builders. Or we could discuss the questions which the Grand Lodge is using with the New Master Mason's Forums. They are good questions. Worthy of discussion in a Lodge. We could have a Mini-Neighborhood meeting and invite Brothers from another Lodge to come over for sandwiches and to get to know one another. Every Brother has a story to tell of how they came into Masonry and listening to those stories is a Lodge Building thing.

We know if we are going to have degree work. Petitions are presented a month out. They lay over for a month before they can be voted on and then the degree work starts. When you have a lot of degrees you are busy and the Brothers get used to coming to Lodge regularly. When you don't have degree work you should have something else going on so that the Brothers don't get out of the habit of attending.

Another idea is a ritual practice. I think it would be good to sit around the table and recite the ritual passing off to each other so that we can become more proficient. There are lots of things we can do other than put on degrees. To be fair some of those things are scheduled. There have been ladies nights at Acanthus and there is a Barbecue picnic scheduled for the second Thursday here at Arcadia. However there are some blanks on the calendar. I kind of think we should fill in those blanks with some "fun" ARTYAL, Hugs, j

Time for a joke

It is past time for a joke. This one is from Sam.
Skinny Dipping

An elderly man in Florida had owned a large farm for several years.

He had a large pond in the back, fixed up nicely: Picnic tables,
horseshoe courts, a volleyball court, and some apple and peach trees.

The pond was properly shaped and fixed up for swimming.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond and look it over, as he hadn't been there in awhile.

He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all wentto the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, 'We're not coming out until you leave!'

The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or
make you get out of the pond naked.'

Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm here to feed the alligator '

Old men can still think fast.

New Calendar

I have been keeping a calendar for several years with every Masonic Event that I knew about since I was Recorder of the York Rite College. Some people knew about it and there was a link to it from Bailey's Buddy.

I have (at the suggestion of Kurt) transferred it to a Google Calendar which is much easier to maintain. I have changed the link on the left to the new calendar. I have stolen events from the Grand Lodge Calendar and from other calendars. I hope people find it useful. If you find any errors I would appreciate hearing about them and of course if you want something added to the calendar send me an e-mail at JaycoleS@gmail.com. Click here or on the picture to be taken to the calendar. For your convenience it is also embedded at the bottom of the blog.

P.S. We passed the 25,000 mark this morning. Thank you ARTYAL. j

In Cabin'd Ships at Sea

Thanks Don for suggesting this. I think it is more about the lives we live than a ship at sea. Enjoy

Walter Whitman
From Whitman’s Leaves of Grass


In Cabin'd Ships at Sea

In cabin'd ships at sea,
The boundless blue on every side expanding,
With whistling winds and music of the waves, the large imperious waves,
Or some lone bark buoy'd on the dense marine,
Where joyous full of faith, spreading white sails,
She cleaves the ether mid the sparkle and the foam of day, or under many a star at night,
By sailors young and old haply will I, a reminiscence of the land, be read,
In full rapport at last.

Here are our thoughts, voyagers' thoughts,
Here not the land, firm land, alone appears, may then by them be said,
The sky o'erarches here, we feel the undulating deck beneath our feet,
We feel the long pulsation, ebb and flow of endless motion,
The tones of unseen mystery, the vague and vast suggestions of the
briny world, the liquid-flowing syllables,
The perfume, the faint creaking of the cordage, the melancholy rhythm,
The boundless vista and the horizon far and dim are all here,
And this is ocean's poem.

Then falter not O book, fulfil your destiny,
You not a reminiscence of the land alone,
You too as a lone bark cleaving the ether, purpos'd I know not
whither, yet ever full of faith,
Consort to every ship that sails, sail you!
Bear forth to them folded my love, (dear mariners, for you I fold it
here in every leaf;)
Speed on my book! spread your white sails my little bark athwart the
imperious waves,
Chant on, sail on, bear o'er the boundless blue from me to every sea,
This song for mariners and all their ships.

Neighborhood Meeting

I went to the Masonic Neighborhood Area Meeting in Colo tonight. Unfortunately the pictures I took did not come out due to my shaking the camera. This was the best one and even in it Pat was moving.

These are interesting meetings and Tim Anderson, Deputy Grand Secretary was there as well as Mike Aves and Craig Davis of the Lodge Service Committee. There were Brothers there from about 9 different Lodges. Arcadia had 5 members there.

The meeting was wide ranging and was very enjoyable. We heard about many of the programs of the Grand Lodge and I found it interesting and worth my time.

April is Poetry Month

April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, and one of four months with a length of 30 days.

The derivation of the name (Latin Aprilis) is uncertain. The traditional etymology from the Latin aperire, "to open," in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open," is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of ἁνοιξις (opening) for spring. April is known to be "National Poetry Month"

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

There are a lot of people who love poetry. Many more do not. One way for those who do not enjoy poetry to begin enjoying it is for them to read the poem out loud. The rhythm of poetry is one of the things which makes it more enjoyable. This month I will share some of my favorite poems with you and hopefully you will share some of yours with me. I think my all time favorite poem is Vespers by A. A. Milne. Try reading it out loud and listen to it as you read it.

Vespers -
A. A. Milne 1882-1956

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath to-night?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

I used to read poetry to my class all the time. I think most of the kids enjoyed it. At least some of them did. The imagery in the above poem and the rhythm make it a wonder to me. Visualize and enjoy as you read it and come back tomorrow for another poem. ARTYAL, Hugs, j-bear.