A Mason's Work

So, it was out browsing the net as I do and noticed some things that I wanted to talk

about for today's podcast.

And before I start here, I want to be quite clear about sort of my take on some of the

things we're going to talk about today.

There is a fair amount of pain and suffering that happens in life that is not optional.

This is the pain of growth, the pain and suffering that comes with adversity and hardship

and things like that.

So when we start talking about kind of the way we apply our understanding of these things

masonically, it's important to understand that I under, you know, or for you to know

as a listener that I understand that kind of life happens and that people have to suffer

through some stuff as they grow.

That said, as we talk about or talk to some very younger brethren as they're coming

up to the ranks, one of the things that I've seen is essentially what qualifies as toxic

masculinity.

Now, I know that's a, you know, a woke or a buzzword kind of phrase and a lot of folks

don't really understand what it means.

But it starts with phrases like nut up or, you know, stuff that really is an insult

to someone's manhood in the context of essentially pointing out that they need to suffer more

or that they haven't suffered perhaps what you might have suffered individually.

And so this is a difficult thing for a lot of guys because we go through a lot of stuff

in life and we don't talk about it and we kind of wear that suffering in some ways as

a badge of honor.

But for our younger brethren and that's really who this world is for when you think about

it, a lot of them have different experiences.

They may be come from an environment where they have not been trained or educated.

They may come from an environment where they have grown up and have calluses in different

places than you do as a man.

Emotional social, you know, internet-based, whatever, it doesn't really matter what does

matter, I think, as we proceed forward and try and nurture each other in our growth,

is that we don't demand that the world essentially endure in the same way we have endured.

The world has become much more subtle place and you can argue all day whether or not that

subtleties good or bad but our brethren deserve compassion in those conversations.

The application of the trowel is our responsibility.

And so when we start to think about nurturing others through the adversity of growth, it

is important to understand that everyone works their own stone and you don't know what

that is.

We've talked about this a little bit in the past but some of the explicit stuff I've seen

online lately of guys knocking each other down instead of lifting each other up was

a little bit disturbing and that again, you can't see the stone they're working, you can't

see what's going on in their world.

And so with the sort of sort of sight blindness that you have, even with guys you know, well,

there's a ton going on inside that headspace they may have.

It's important to remember that trial as we move forward.

And remember too that, you know, what you may have learned at 12, someone else may learn

at 50 and what you may learn at 50, someone else may have learned 18 or what have you.

And so since we're all traveling on our own timelines, I think it's important too to remember

that that compassion was once given you, hopefully in your life.

And so a lot of the sort of application of the tools of free Masonry are in context

of perhaps an individual journey in a specific sort of domain or expertise, right?

So I like to use video game analogies for a lot of stuff.

It's like levels in a video game.

My conversation skills may be level eight and somebody else is maybe a level two.

And that's okay.

You know, I remember maybe getting from level six to level seven, but you can't look

down on the level two guys that are just trying to figure it out.

And in the same way, a lot of stuff that I really am not great at or don't know much about,

it becomes important to be able to in a safe way ask for help amongst the brother and

other large.

So as you are taking new guys under your wing, remember, use that trowel and take good

care of each other.

It's tough enough out there without, you know, the guys you're supposed to trust taking

a swing at you.

And if you've done it in the past and I think we all have to a degree, remember your trowel

when you go to work.