A Mason's Work

There's a petal van you may seen. We wear a tux to a lodge if you're a line officer or

an appointed officer. And what's interesting about that in large moving pieces for me at

least is that there is a philosophical conflict between the preparing room and removing your

outward appearances of wealth and virtue and the sort of paradox of having the show up in a tux.

And I think it's amusing in a lot of ways largely because you are sort of symbolically stripped

down to your, you know, to your knickers as a thing. And then all of a sudden, you get all of that

back as you are, you know, as you're you're reinvested with all of your clothing. I think it's important

to kind of kind of look at this in a lot of ways because I, I guess we'll start with my expression

of it here. I love wearing the tux. I love wearing the tux. It's a weird thing. For me, it is like

putting on a uniform. It is as much a part of the ritual experience for me as the ritual itself.

It helps me put my right frame of mind on so I can go to lodge. Now that said, you know, the tux itself,

the specific tux, I have may or may not be the most comfortable one in the world. And that's kind

of irrelevant. It's the sort of conceptual mind space. But how do you reconcile that with the,

you know, the outward appearance is conversation that happens in the preparing room. I think it's

an important thing to understand because the quality of my tux, for example, or your tux relative

to somebody else's tux in the lodge, because, you know, there's a price range for all of those things.

There is a design aesthetic and all that kind of thing. Starts to become like if you, if you kind of

look at it too long your eyes go crossed. You go, well, that guy's got a nicer tux, but we're all

the same, but we're supposed to be meeting on the level and it doesn't matter anyway. It's a work.

So when you're looking at things like this, like the tuxedo or like sort of putting on the

your suit as it were, it isn't again about any of the exterior stuff.

There's going to be folks that rock a much smarter suit than I rock and that's okay.

There are going to be folks that work off of a hand to be known suit that they got from the good

will and that's okay too. Some of my fondest recollections are showing guys that don't know how to put

on the suit, how to tie a tie. So you're going to find that that relationship between how you appear

in lodge is really has very little to do with everyone else there. It is an interior experience.

It is a cementing of the ritual. Now, do I need the tuxedo to be a mason? Nope. Sure don't.

I try and act that way all the time, but when it comes to going to lodge, you know, putting that

uniform on, it certainly does help. It gets me ready for the game. So, you know, there's a lot to

kind of think about there and I'd love to get your thoughts on your experience with the tux or

the suit as it were and how you think it relates relative to the other parts of the sort of craft.

You know, hit me up. Brian, I'd like to make this work.com. I'd love to get your thoughts and

you know, maybe I'll reply to them in a future episode.