MASONS: AWARENESS AND BEING A SPECIES OF MEMORY

When I was a boy, my church taught, that man, being in the likeness of G-d held dominion over all creatures. Funny the things you remember as you get older.  Since I'm not capable of much original thought, I paraphrase the well-known historian, Professor Bettany Hughes who made what seemed to me an uncanny observation- we are a species of memory.  Imagine, a woman defining freemasonry so precisely.  Not only are we the epitome of genetic memory, we came at that awareness by a much more circuitous route that the neurology. It may seem to many we were founded on speculation. All ideas are speculative. Except some are also the truth, fluid, accurate.  Today, we are reinforced in our beliefs by science that concurs. Modern medicine may tell us what is happening. But masonry tells us how to employ that knowledge to the benefit of all humanity.  The growth of the individual serves the many.  Masons. We are readers. We explore history with great interest and in detail. But what aspect of history is up to the architecture of a mind. Ample evidence pours forth, reinforcing our beliefs. But to separate our points of view from idle speculation for the sake of authenticating it to listeners takes a well-read speaker to put his observations into context.  Masonry validates ethics and principles from our reflection on the history of thought. Masonry is not quite a catechism. Oaths and obligations taken without having an understand push us to articulate our thoughts. The reveal tells us a great deal about the speaker. Combine that with the observation of his behaviour and we well  'know' that person. Attendance?  Uniform du jour?  Walking into a surgery does not make us a surgeon.  A thousand times, the passive seeker experiences so little until that moment when he realizes the need to test his ability, to accept the challenge.  Masonry is neither a cannon or passive.  It is opportunity.