A Mason's Work

I want to start today by talking a little bit more about symbolism as a concept and then

dive into this week's kind of symbol.

First things first, when it comes to Masonic symbolism or symbolism in general, you are

taking a concept or idea above and beyond its everyday use.

It's a conceptual lever, right?

So when we use a symbol like a ball, we'll say things like, hey, you can throw the ball

or you can work with a ball or you can bounce the ball or et cetera, et cetera.

But we don't mean that in a literal sense, obviously, because listening to a podcast

like this isn't going to give you a ball.

When we talk about symbolism in general, again, the application is going to vary significantly

sometimes from the everyday application or interpretation.

Symbolically, a ball is riled.

It has no edges.

A ball rolls with little or minimal effort and is one of the lowest friction kind of objects

you can have without mechanical intervention.

So when you start to think about a ball a little bit differently, it starts to become

other things.

Well good news today's symbol isn't a ball.

It is the world.

And as Mason's, we talk about the world of fair amount, believe it or not, in the ritual,

by essentially talking about how the lodge itself is different from the world.

We talk about the world as the place where all of our work gets tested and applied.

It becomes the place where we, as we act through the full range of our day to day life,

we get to test all of the things we think we know and all of our skills as we move through

the path of life.

So it frames essentially the entire sort of field in which all of our tools are applied.

We will use them in the lodge.

We will use them in development internally in a Masonic context.

But the whole design intent is not to be do all of that work in the lodge room.

It's then take that out into that larger world and use it to grow and make the world a better

place, etc.

So you can't describe the craft in many ways without describing the world the craft is

in.

This makes a lot of what we do very difficult because you can't have something that works

only in theory.

A lot of the work that we do, if you expect that it's only going to work in theory, don't

bother.

Don't bother.

There's tons of stuff that works in theory that when it's met with the real friction of

everyday life falls over completely.

So when you are considering how you're going to become a better person, it's not an

appropriate solution, for example, to cut off everything, for example.

Let's say you want to lose weight.

When you go into the world, there is a ton of people that really do not want you to lose

weight.

They might say they want you to lose weight, but they don't want you to.

You know, who doesn't want you to lose weight?

The fast food industry.

They do not have an interest in you losing weight at all.

Anybody who's making money by selling things that will profit by your fatness does not

want you to lose weight.

So the world inherently becomes a testing ground for that idea as a concept.

So you can't build a solution that's only going to work in the launch or only going

to work in isolated situations because again, when it meets the real world, you fail.

And sometimes that's for reasons that you can control.

And a lot of times it's for reasons you can't control.

So when we talk about the symbol of the world as a Masonic tool or as a tool for becoming

a better person, it's important to essentially understand what that really means.

And it is a place of varying motives.

It's a place where not everyone's your friend.

It's a place where everyone's going to be in some level of kind of conflict either by

intent or by accident, right?

A lot of the conflict that we face in the world is just accidental.

It's the whole hunter predator prey kind of analogy, right?

You know, the lions on the savannah do not necessarily have much opinions about the animals

they are eating and that has nothing to do with whether or not they should or they should

care.

So when we start looking at the world, we look at this place where there's just a ton

of things going on and where all of our Masonic work will be tested.

And when we get into the next episode, we'll talk about what that means from a practical

sort of behavioral context.

And then as per, you know, the regular episodes, we'll move to the relational or the reflective

kind of understanding of what that means, a systemic understanding and then get ready

towards the end of the week here.

We've got a special guest to help put all of that together in a lived experience.

Thank you for listening.

Talk again soon.