WHEN WE FIND OURSELVES WONDERING

One day, while minding my own busy a knock came to the door. William Leslie Wilmshurst came for a visit and never left.  He had written a book- The Meaning of Masonry and being intrigued  he had brought along a gift copy.  Now years later, Leslie long since passed, his observations continue to refresh thinking.  Some but not all men who are made masons, arrive with interest in research.  Personally, I'm not sure if that is why we hear them criticized for being followers. I'm not so sure I totally disagree but I do find it tedious their prodigious numbers give them more influence than is justfied.  W.L. and I shared similar points of view.  I like to think in our own separate ways, we encourage readers to consider a depth of thought not always evident when we gather together.  Of course we have defining lodges doing defining things far and away.  We can't all live near Edinburgh or Barvaria or Paris or London. I don't regularly worship at Westminster or Roselyn but a visit with them was like that feeling a man gets when his moments with his soult mate are timeless; a second with her equalilng a lifetime with anyone else. I can't tell you much about taste. I like opera and jazz not as better than the rest. You're paradise is yours. Some of us travel through the minds or writers. Some of us don't. Some of us can't. Some of us won't.  When Leslie comes to your door, I will say if you have ever wondered about the scaffolding of masonry that frames the Order, you are in for a treat.  Obviously the Craft focuses on subjective experience.  It's like Richard Feynman sharing his joy with the uncertainty of  physics. I wish I could directly ask Leslie about his thoughts on determinism that he illustrates so subtlety in his writings but for now it remains a one-sided debate.  Each time we pick absorb ideas, we begin applying them to our point of view (POV).