A Mason's Work

Inplicit in every single one of the degrees that you take up to and including the third

and all the time before that is a symbol or a concept we're not talking about in Freemasonry

very much, but it is fundamental to the Masonic experience so much so that its absence is

probably a surprise even to the folks that are ritualists because it's so implied

it's swimming under the water of the entire craft and that symbol, that concept that is

implied by Freemasonry is curiosity.

One of the things that curiosity does pursues novelty and new experiences and pop in the

covers off of things and finding out how they work and that kind of approach to the craft

is implicit and in some ways it's explicit, right?

You were curious to learn how Freemasonry worked, you expressed that desire to a brother,

they helped you get a petition, you had no idea what you were going through.

And so with all of that in mind, the curiosity sort of approach or I guess the drive to

understand and seek more and I guess by proxy grow I think is a fair logical assessment.

Underpinning of the craft makes certain implications. It implies that that curiosity will be

rewarded. It implies that the results of that curiosity in some way have value that there is

some return on that sort of philosophical investment or that behavioral investment or that exploration.

And so when you start to look between the lines of the craft and understand what that means,

you really get to then sort of develop a Masonic approach to the work of life.

And so with that said, one of the things that's happening sort of socially right now and you can

argue politically left or right, one of the things that is sort of required of us as

Mason's is to approach any situation with a sense of curiosity.

And now inevitably when you say things like any and all people are going to come out of the

woodwork and say, well, should I approach a burning inferno with curiosity? Yes, you know,

throw scruples to the wind. You don't stop being cautious. But understanding the

house and wise and wherefores of even burning infernos has a ton of sort of value. Same things true

with the things that are going on in the world, be them in your lodge, be them with the individuals.

That implicit curiosity made explicit here in this conversation, but also made explicit in your

progressing through the degrees is required and it is fundamental to growth and development.

So be curious in the world. Be the the Masonic curiosity is one that again uses all the tools of

Freemasonry in particular and I'm going to be harping on this for a while the the trial with love

and care and kindness approach your brothers approach the cowans out on the street with that same

sense of curiosity, but in a way that is respectful. And I think you'll find that we have more

in common than we have that are than we do sort of differences. And in fact, the more you explore

curiosity as a concept, the more you learn how things work again be the machines, people,

societies, organizations, you know, what have you. The more you learn how they work and the

wise of how they work, the better and able you're going to be to create positive change in the world.

In whatever way you see fit and we've talked about that a little bit earlier in some of our earlier

episodes, you know, I'm not here to tell you what change is best. I'm here to show you that these

tools are designed to help you become an agent of change in the world and that curiosity is a

fundamental component of that. So go out and know a lot of you are curious already, but go out and be

curious.