A Mason's Work

[00:00] So, it's sick to assume that the founders of Freemasonry, whoever they might have been
[00:06] at any given point, remained organized as a, philosophically, conceptually, as a lodge.
[00:14] They used the working lodge as a concept, and in that way, every function of the lodge
[00:23] can be used to help navigate problems.
[00:27] And today, we're going to talk about one of the more exciting ways, bear with me, one
[00:34] of the more exciting ways that you can move the conversation forward inside your own mind
[00:41] or with people in the room, and that is taking the role of the secretary.
[00:48] I know, I know.
[00:50] Some of you at home are probably going, I've already been secretary a thousand years.
[00:55] Please, please make this stop.
[00:57] Or, you're going, I wouldn't touch that job with a long stick.
[01:02] And here is where the administrative work of secretary and the role of secretary differ.
[01:12] In my jurisdiction, when you take the role of secretary, one of the things that you promise
[01:17] to do is to keep an accurate recording of the proceeds of a meeting.
[01:22] Uh, what happened in the meeting?
[01:24] What does it look like?
[01:25] What went down?
[01:26] Um, and only those things that were fit to be recorded to, for posterity's sake, right?
[01:34] Um, and so when we look at this function for ourselves, um, we're really talking about the
[01:41] ability to retain and recall, uh, information that is appropriate and useful and free of,
[01:50] um, charge free of the emotional language, uh, that oftentimes comes with our own memories.
[01:57] Um, and so we can get into this sort of conceptual headspace and understand that the secretary is
[02:05] the recorder of memory.
[02:07] Uh, and as the recorder of memory, uh, you're going to want to keep an accurate understanding
[02:12] of what that is.
[02:13] This is also a role that you're going to want to step into on a regular basis when you are
[02:19] trying to diagnose and troubleshoot something that may be going on in your world.
[02:24] Uh, you know, relative to how you feel about it more often than not, the way we remember
[02:31] a thing or the way we record a thing is not free of emotional content.
[02:36] And because of that, um, some of the memories that we have, which, uh, we have been, may
[02:43] have been in a bad state when we recorded them, we may have been, uh, frustrated, agitated,
[02:48] abused, any of the above.
[02:50] Uh, and at the time we recorded those memories to recall them recalls the emotional content
[02:56] and not the factual content.
[02:58] And so this is where sort of working with your inner secretary as a function becomes absolutely
[03:06] one of the more fertile territories to kind of our roles to hang out in one of the best
[03:12] aprons to put on.
[03:13] Uh, so what does it mean to record something free of emotion or take the emotional content
[03:21] out of it more often than not, when you remember a thing, um, you have these, uh, feelings about
[03:28] what you've remembered.
[03:29] And by being able to recall those feelings, you can take them off of that event if you
[03:38] work to do so.
[03:40] So, uh, you might remember, uh, the last time you were really, really angry.
[03:47] And when you were really angry, um, it, you remember all of the details very likely that
[03:54] made you angry.
[03:55] Maybe it was the feeling of helplessness.
[03:58] Maybe it was the feeling, uh, that your needs weren't getting met, whatever those things
[04:02] are.
[04:03] But if you take those feelings off of what you remember, the event itself, uh, stops being
[04:09] interpreted with that emotional content, uh, or through that emotional content.
[04:14] And you can see things for what they are.
[04:16] Uh, the same thing's true across the broad swath of your memories and your recollections of
[04:23] all sorts that they are very likely recorded both with factual content, as you saw it at
[04:29] the time.
[04:31] Uh, and there's some important context there as well, as well as with emotional content,
[04:36] which you're going to, um, benefit from removing.
[04:40] Uh, this holds true for both positive and negative memories.
[04:46] Uh, and so we'll get into a little bit more of this when we start doing some of the behavior
[04:49] work or understanding what the secretary does in the role of managing your behavior.
[04:54] Um, and then, uh, from there, we'll move to the relationship level and then systemic,
[04:58] like we have been, uh, and then a little bit of a collection, uh, at the end of the week
[05:03] with, uh, what does that mean out in the real world?
[05:07] So stay tuned.
[05:08] We'll see you tomorrow.