A Mason's Work

00:01
Tradition of ideas like brotherly love through the symbolism of the trial may seem at the surface to be relatively straightforward. You know, everything you do should be done with love and kindness, but I think if you, if you sit down and reflect on it mentally, there's a lot more to explore, particularly in the, the mechanisms and the methods we use to express that brotherly love and affection to folks in their times of need or, or what have you. So today I'd like to lean in a little bit more on that conversation and talk about some of the ways we might express brotherly love in that, in that context, such that we're not going to sort of go against what our intents are in terms of delivering that care. So I think it's pretty, pretty obvious that the way we care is going to vary from person to person, that we have default sort of modalities in how we do that.

01:13
So some folks care by spending time and attention. Some folks care by providing space and compassion. Some folks care, you know, by maybe thoughtful inquiry and, and every one of those expressions might be the right thing at the right place at the right time. As we start to review and think about what those expressions might be, it becomes pretty obvious. I think for, for most folks, that the, the situation that you might be faced with as a lodger, as an individual will necessitate different types of care at different times when someone is grieving, for example, it's not the time necessarily to go into sort of investigative inquiry. It's more maybe a time to express care and compassion or maybe acts service or kindness, you know, thoughtfulness, getting flowers, that kind of stuff. Every one of those sort of acts of care and compassion will again, vary based on this situation. So, as we evaluate how to apply, when to apply again beyond the kind of surface level stuff, there's a lot more nuance here than I think we often give credit for. And for as much as there is the nuance in how we express that brotherly love and compassion to others in specific situations, there's also the need to apply those same principles to ourself and our own behavior and to the community at large. So

02:59
Things like being compassionate and careful with yourself, care filled with yourself, making sure that you have using all the tools of freemasonry, looking on a longer timeline, understanding for example, that you know, perhaps a mistake you may have made or an error in judgment is, is almost never permanent. Those kinds of, of applications of care start to really make the trial, which is such a kind of a one stop shop for an easy concept, really contain a ton more nuance and, and a ton more careful sort of reflection required in its use. So while you're reflecting this week, spend some time reflecting on the trial.