WITH PURPOSE

Since forever we've done it. Since 1390 when the Halliwell Manuscript was produced, we have been exchanging ideas with purpose. Sharing opinions with intimates is intersting. Perspectives, when sought and valued gain reaction that range from disinterest to validation and influence. Our Brotherhood pushes us to be different than we were. It redefines tribe to a worldwide footing. Formerly our thinking was influenced by access to information. Small books of information, that blended philosophy with history and conjecture, gave us context.  Like folk-lore, it took advantage of fantastical claims that we use to build sterotypes that do not exist but in the mind. Freemasonry tells stories that we need to hear. Our research gives us greater access to actuals, alerting us to caveats so we can move forward knowing when we are integrating myth.  I have no fault with that.  When we listen to La Boheme or Queen of Spades, or Tosca or  watch As You Have It, Or Midsummers Night Dream we suspend our sense of reality to access the magic.  Masonry does not pull back the curtain; it illustrates the joy of magic as well as the need for fact. Intelligent men understand. Masonry is influential. Influence increases as we understand and integrate ideas.  Philosophy allows us to calculate for ourselves. The dialetics. Asking us to use stereotypes is only for illustration. Masonry, a methodology with no centre or edge makes us step back in our minds to conceptualize what we see in front of us, something that challenges conventional beliefs. Yes there are separations but yes there are similarities.Who we follow is not he who tells us to follow. It is he who leads. Today, you could be the influence that matters.