MasonicMinute.com

aedifico42| Family and Masonry

Posted at: 9:18 pm

I had an interesting experience today.  My daughter caught me reading.

I was not watching ESPN, or surfing the internet or anything like that…I was reading.  She came up to me (she’s almost three years old) and sat in my lap and we looked at all the pictures in the book I had been paying attention to.  We talked about colors and letters and numbers…you know…three year old kid stuff.

She got tired of looking at pictures of guys standing or sitting while wearing funny clothes and drawings of old buildings, so she grabbed one of her books and sat next to me on the floor and started reading something about a Wombat and his little friends having a sleep-over.  I must confess, I only feigned interest.

But I realized that I was doing her a favor.  I was teaching her a lesson that too many of our brothers don’t teach their kids…I was reading with the TV turned off.

Now, this little incident is not isolated.  Many an evening will end for my little princess with her droopy little head walking out to the living room and giving me a kiss good-night.  The thing is, I usually have to put down my book in order to give her a big hug and kiss.  Daddy reads.

I am no better than any other Man.  I will never claim such a thing.  But the lesson I learned today filled me with such an awesome sense of accomplishment that I had to share it with the Blog.  My Masonry was improving my family.  My practice of this Craft was taking this little girl into the world of the written word…which will eventually (I hope) lead her into literature and knowledge far beyond the perception of her peers.  This is a gift that my Masonic curiosity has given to my family.

So who do you represent to your children?  What does your family see you do on those lazy weekends when it’s too hot to mow the lawn and the budget doesn’t allow for a movie or a trip to the mall?  Are you taking your time to be a Mason? 

I let my Craft invade and permeate every aspect of my life.  Masonry is who I am, not just what I do.  This, my brothers, is what we need to remember.  Our Craft is a noble pursuit, it is Arthur’s ”Quest for the Grail”, it is Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”, it is a way of living. 

When all of us live the life of a Mason while being who we are…we will all be better and our Craft will at last have in it the men it deserves.

I try.  Do you?

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