Where is the Pride ?

Something that has been bothering me is the lack of seriousness and pride displayed in our degree work. When a man is joining our great fraternity, one of the things which draws him to us is our rich heritage. Too many times we lack in promoting our heritage, traditions, and rituals to the candidate.

In my opinion this can be attributed to sloppy work, that is ritual work and sloppy floor work. When opening and closing our lodges the officers are often referred to by the wrong name, i.e. Brother Senior err....Junior Deacon err...Warden. It reminds me of when my kids were young and I would have to go thru all their names to arrive at the correct one....and at times exclaim, "whatever your name is come here."

It is very easy to mistakenly address an officer...but if we study and actually practice or rehearse this can be corrected. The same thing applies for the modes of recognition (tokens) and the signs. Think about this....put yourself in the place of the candidate....here he is joining the world's oldest and largest fraternity and the officers imparting the "knowledge" of the signs, tokens, and words can't properly demonstrate them and their meaning. The candidate begins to wonder if these are so important why are the officers confused and not sure of themselves.

Compare the scenario above to your chosen work, whether currently active or retired....if someone new came on the job site and you had to train the new person would you have the confidence and ability to clearly demonstrate to them how to do the job. My thinking is that you could clearly communicate to them and teach that new person how to do the job. This would be easily done because of repetition, dedication, and pride in your work....a chance to "show-off" a bit.

Where has the repetition, dedication, and pride in our Masonic work gone? The old saying is "that you only have one chance to make a good first impression." Admittedly we are all going to make mistakes, get confused and or nervous. However, at this stage of the "Masonic Year" the officers in place should have a good feel for their office and be able to "show-off" a bit and really impress these candidates.