We WereOnceHighBorn

If you told tell me Wolfgang Mozart was a freemason, I pay a different attention to his music. But telling me a manufactured celebrity was a mason doesn't matter much at all. I'm not made different because of the achievements of another person.  If I am inspired by their work, then that's about being receptive. Perhaps it is the story of Chopin or Dvorzak or Pushkin and Byron. Did I care that Alan Turing was gay and publically humiliated inspite of his contributions? What makes a man a freemason is knowing the difference between what is popular and what is ethical. If we kept silent about who had been a member, it would underline the significance you and I in all our meagreness, bring to the occasion. Which one of them was a true mason?  Washington took one degree. Did anyone harp at Churchill or Prince of Wales for poor attendence or failing to visit?  So being on the level must have some qualifiers attached.  And the precepts of the order aren't as absolute as Newtonian Mechanics or Platonic Shapes. It is easier to describe what we aren't than to define what it is we are and what we do. If we do the work, if we find satisfaction in it, if we penetrate our opinions with these expansive ideas, who is to say if our character will be improved? Who is to say if the world is a better place?  You are. You are honest man who understands how precarious life can be and how doing it right has nothing to do with the outter man and everything to do with character. Smiling for no apparant reason makes a person feel better and has a very lovely effect on most everyone who comes in contact.  We're built that way. Were built with an ability to rationalize what we want to rationalize. And out of that wreckage, we have an ability to solve problems. Let that be the lesson. We have more ability than we acknowledge but can't lean toward that potential without applying action. Fascinating.