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Episode 31. Civility Project review (with Reed Endersbe) · Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries

• 0:36
  Welcome to a crossover event.
• 0:38
  We do these every once in a while.
• 0:41
  This is the kindness chronicles and also Minnesota Masonic histories and mysteries.
• 0:45
  We have some guests in the studio here today.
• 0:48
  Uh, we got Steve Brown, who's not a guest.
• 0:51
  He sort of, he actually has a, he's got a room here, uh, up where the bunk beds are, uh, Scott Berg is coming, uh, to coming to us from Naples, Florida.
• 1:01
  Looking fantastic, but in person here, but he's in person.
• 1:04
  And then our friend Reed Endersby is here.
• 1:06
  Hello.
• 1:06
  And Reed and I are colleagues at, uh, in the land of masonry.
• 1:10
  And, uh, we're going to be talking today a little bit about our civility school.
• 1:15
  We did a, uh, an introduction, uh, A test run of civility school and we want to report back.
• 1:21
  Yeah, we, we heard a set up about it, that it was coming.
• 1:24
  Uh, we talked to Michael Dempsey and you, and we kind of talked about what, you know, what it was all about.
• 1:28
  And it really, I found it to, it worked pretty well, but we're going to talk about that, but first I want to talk about.
• 1:34
  What a small world we live in.
• 1:35
  Yes.
• 1:35
  For starters, and I've mentioned this before, when somebody sends me a Facebook request or a LinkedIn request, like a friend request, like a friend request, I will always go on and I will put that name into the Facebook thing.
• 1:51
  And almost every single time one of two people come up as a mutual friend, Scott Berg.
• 2:00
  Or Brenda Brown, who I went to college with.
• 2:02
  It's those two people.
• 2:03
  Remember we had Brenda on the, on the podcast.
• 2:06
  It's shocking how many, and they're not just like these random, like, Oh yeah, I kind of know that person.
• 2:12
  Like Scott is friends with all of these people.
• 2:15
  I don't know how you have the energy for it.
• 2:19
  He did sell cars for about 40 years.
• 2:23
  So it kind of comes with the territory.
• 2:25
  You know, you're just a guy who connects with people.
• 2:28
  You need to, you need to.
• 2:30
  And then, uh, so I mentioned to, um, Steve that I've, I've gotten to know this Reed Endersby and Steve goes, wait a minute, Reed Endersby.
• 2:37
  How do I know that name?
• 2:39
  Is he from North Dakota?
• 2:40
  how in the hell would you know that?
• 2:43
  And then I went to work and I said to Reid, I go, do you know Steve Brown from Johnny Clueless and what?
• 2:48
  Wait a second, I know that name.
• 2:50
  So why don't you two, let's have a reunion here on the air.
• 2:54
  How the hell do you two know each other?
• 2:56
  So yeah, knowing you were going to be here, it's so good to see you Reid.
• 2:59
  Like I haven't seen you probably in, 25, 30 years.
• 3:03
  How do you look?
• 3:03
  How do you look?
• 3:04
  What's your assessment?
• 3:05
  Reed looks, Reed looks like that.
• 3:06
  Reed is such a dapper Yeah.
• 3:09
  He looks pretty much clean living.
• 3:11
  Thank you.
• 3:11
  Used to be a little darker hair and darker beard, but.
• 3:15
  I'm happy that I still have the hair.
• 3:16
  Yes.
• 3:16
  Cause it's girl take it.
• 3:17
  If we both got it, we're, we're happy about that.
• 3:20
  And Steve's got the rockstar hair.
• 3:21
  Yeah.
• 3:22
  Sort of rockstar.
• 3:23
  It's sort of like a pseudo rockstar.
• 3:24
  Corporate rockstar.
• 3:25
  Corporate rockstar.
• 3:26
  Um, no, but, uh, the last time, so.
• 3:32
  uh, read helped put together.
• 3:34
  Did you help put together the Westward hoe?
• 3:36
  Something like concert.
• 3:37
  So you come again?
• 3:38
  I was at the Westward.
• 3:41
  Hold on.
• 3:41
  All right.
• 3:41
  So the westward hoe was a famous hotel in Grand Forks my hometown.
• 3:47
  And.
• 3:47
  The boot shaped swimming pool.
• 3:49
  Martin Zeller of the Gear Daddies always made jokes about the boot shaped swimming pool, like a cowboy boot.
• 3:54
  And there was a festival or the, I don't know, festival group con Johnny Clueless.
• 3:59
  Yep.
• 4:00
  The Billy's.
• 4:01
  The Billy's and there was three.
• 4:03
  Honey dogs.
• 4:03
  Yeah.
• 4:04
  The honey dogs.
• 4:04
  Not the Gear Daddy.
• 4:05
  No, not the Gear Daddies.
• 4:05
  No.
• 4:06
  And I think maybe, well, maybe Martin Zeller was solo at the time.
• 4:09
  Maybe.
• 4:10
  Yeah.
• 4:10
  But.
• 4:11
  It was probably 1992 or 93.
• 4:13
  I'd say somewhere.
• 4:14
  Maybe 94.
• 4:15
  I don't know.
• 4:15
  It was somewhere in there.
• 4:16
  Early nineties.
• 4:17
  And we promoted it at the radio station I was at at the time.
• 4:20
  Yeah, we interviewed, we got to interview us.
• 4:23
  On the air.
• 4:23
  We got to be interviewed by Reid.
• 4:25
  I think there was a post party that involved a copious amount of Jack Daniels and things that make me shudder now that, yeah, we're not going to talk about that.
• 4:34
  Yeah, we're going to cut that part out.
• 4:35
  Very fun though.
• 4:36
  Very fun weekend.
• 4:37
  It was a, we, we had a great time socializing afterwards.
• 4:41
  And then, and then I remember seeing after that, um, cause you worked with orphan on a couple of things.
• 4:47
  I think you helped promote and you were involved in really helping our bands kind of do some stuff up North.
• 4:52
  And then he gets a job at KQ and I'm hearing his voice.
• 4:55
  I'm like, I know that guy.
• 4:57
  How do I know?
• 4:57
  Oh my God.
• 4:58
  It's a read is just, he's, he's everywhere.
• 5:01
  Well, and I, you know, I'm sure you were, cause you, Did a lot of advertising.
• 5:06
  You know, Tom Bernard and that crew really well.
• 5:09
  I'm sure you remember them referring to Reed on the, on the air and they had a sort of a nasty name for you.
• 5:15
  Reed Underling is what I recall them calling you.
• 5:18
  The story was that we had a general manager who was so removed that he didn't know.
• 5:23
  It's kind of a early version of Michael Scott from the office.
• 5:27
  No, Dave was my boss.
• 5:28
  We're not going to name this person just because it's the kindness chronicle.
• 5:33
  Exactly.
• 5:34
  So this This guy was known to, and he, there was, he was giving a tour one day and he introduced our promotions director, Sophie, who had been there for five years as Sally something.
• 5:46
  And then he gets to me and Dave, the boss is not around.
• 5:49
  It's like, and this is, and this is our assistant program director read.
• 5:54
  And he, he mumbles my last name and it sounded like he said Ebersh, it was Endersby.
• 6:00
  Well, then when Tom retold the story on the air, he's like, and then, and then Mark said something like read underlay and then that was, that's all it took.
• 6:09
  Yeah.
• 6:09
  And so it was, and I had been there for like 10 years at the time.
• 6:13
  So thanks, Michael Scott.
• 6:15
  He didn't know your people, but.
• 6:16
  Whatever.
• 6:17
  Well, and then to take it to the next level, Reid and I are in the office and we're talking about the fact that we're going to be doing this and that we're going to You know, have you come out for lunch one of these days and Keith Ryerson who we work with says wait a second You're bringing Steve Brown out He apparently used to be in the music business and did some production work once upon a time or something for no John I know that because we had him on as a guest I know that, for the people that didn't hear that episode.
• 6:46
  Okay, yeah, so.
• 6:47
  I know that you know that.
• 6:49
  I didn't, I thought you forgot.
• 6:50
  So we all knew.
• 6:51
  Like my Chris.
• 6:51
  Krista.
• 6:52
  Yes.
• 6:53
  And.
• 6:53
  Krista Valenskis.
• 6:55
  All the orphan guys.
• 6:55
  The worlds collide.
• 6:56
  It's crazy.
• 6:57
  Keith, so, so yeah, so Keith, I get to connect with Keith too, me and Keith.
• 7:01
  You understand how this works.
• 7:03
  No, no, tell me.
• 7:04
  So, like, people don't listen to every single episode.
• 7:07
  Yes.
• 7:08
  And that was a long, long time ago.
• 7:11
  So, you know, we get new listeners every episode.
• 7:14
  And then we probably lose some.
• 7:15
  Like, we're going to lose a whole bunch on this one.
• 7:18
  So, way to go, Steve.
• 7:20
  Way to go.
• 7:21
  I have a quick story to tell you.
• 7:23
  And, uh, this is for my friend, uh, Kyle and Andrea Kangas.
• 7:28
  So I am volunteering again for the Minnow Tank.
• 7:32
  If you recall last year, um, I did this thing where I was a coach for these four fourth grade students.
• 7:42
  a couple days ago, was the, uh, the solar eclipse.
• 7:45
  And we happen to have, one of those mentoring sessions at the school.
• 7:50
  And, Leigh Anderson, who puts this program on, who's just a saint and just a wonderful person, she sends out an email to a group of 12 of us.
• 7:59
  And we're, I'm thanking, oh, it's just to the 12 of us that are part of this mentoring program.
• 8:04
  Thanking us, just what a wonderful time the kids are having.
• 8:08
  Kyle Kangas.
• 8:09
  Hello, Kyle.
• 8:10
  I know you're listening.
• 8:12
  Kyle sends an email back to everybody that says Schweitz lost all control, but the Kangas team is in great shape.
• 8:19
  Okay.
• 8:20
  So I respond to all, this reminds me of back in the day when I was a nursing assistant working on the locked psych unit at St.
• 8:29
  Joe's hospital.
• 8:30
  The kids were nuts.
• 8:32
  They were absolutely nuts.
• 8:34
  So I.
• 8:35
  Send that out and a couple of minutes later I get a text from Lee Anderson that says Um, I've decided to remove a few people from this email string.
• 8:45
  Including our assistant superintendent.
• 8:48
  So, I of course call Kyle and I said, Hey Kyle, thanks for getting me in trouble with the White Bear Lake School District.
• 8:55
  I'm going to have to spend the next session with my nose in the corner.
• 8:58
  Oh, Ben is calling.
• 9:00
  Hold on.
• 9:00
  Hey Ben! Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles and the Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries.
• 9:06
  We're on the air.
• 9:06
  How are you doing?
• 9:07
  I'm Ben.
• 9:08
  Oh, good.
• 9:09
  I just want to call.
• 9:09
  I have an intramural basketball game tonight.
• 9:11
  It's the semifinals.
• 9:13
  Oh, boy.
• 9:14
  Well, that's fantastic.
• 9:15
  Point guard?
• 9:15
  That's what the Kindness Chronicles should know.
• 9:17
  Yeah, we do need to know that.
• 9:19
  You know, KG is not on with us.
• 9:20
  Why don't you give us a sports report?
• 9:22
  How are things?
• 9:24
  It's good.
• 9:24
  I mean, my team is a bunch of ex D1 athletes and me who never, uh, Played a minute of varsity sports his whole life, so I mean, I hope they contribute my three minutes and just watch the team play their game.
• 9:35
  So what you do is you surround yourself with excellence, that's what I've always done, that's a secret, tonight being the exception.
• 9:42
  It's really hard to get disappointed then, because I mean, if you lose, it's like, oh, well I mean, then my team played bad.
• 9:51
  And if you win, then it's like, oh, that's all me.
• 9:54
  Well that's fantastic, we wish you good luck.
• 9:58
  And, uh, hey, check in with us after the game.
• 10:01
  Sounds good.
• 10:01
  All right.
• 10:02
  Good luck, Benny.
• 10:02
  Bye, Ben.
• 10:03
  Are you free?
• 10:04
  Is Steve there?
• 10:04
  Steve's here.
• 10:05
  Yeah.
• 10:06
  Yeah.
• 10:06
  Uh, Scott Berg is here.
• 10:08
  Hi.
• 10:08
  Scott Berg is here.
• 10:10
  Hey, Ben.
• 10:11
  How are ya?
• 10:11
  And Reed Endersby, who I work with.
• 10:13
  It's a full house.
• 10:15
  What a great group of guys.
• 10:16
  I know.
• 10:17
  Goodbye, Ben.
• 10:18
  Hey, you guys have a great one.
• 10:19
  Love you, bud.
• 10:20
  Bye bye.
• 10:20
  Thanks, Ben.
• 10:21
  Bye.
• 10:22
  Ah, Ben.
• 10:23
  So there's our sporting moment.
• 10:25
  So we're doing news, weather and sports.
• 10:27
  Traffic on the eights.
• 10:28
  Traffic on the eights.
• 10:30
  So do you think people have quit listening to us at this point?
• 10:33
  Okay.
• 10:34
  So let's get to what we want to talk about.
• 10:38
  That was a friendly banter.
• 10:39
  I would consider it friendly for the most part.
• 10:42
  Um, We did this, uh, civility school.
• 10:44
  We did a test run of civility school.
• 10:45
  For starters, I am extremely grateful to the people that took the time to come.
• 10:50
  It was the Saturday before Easter.
• 10:52
  We had no idea.
• 10:53
  What kind of turnout that we were going to have?
• 10:56
  It seemed like there was probably about 50 people there.
• 10:59
  And, uh, all ages were represented.
• 11:03
  There were a bunch of dads that brought their, uh, their sons.
• 11:05
  There were a bunch of people from.
• 11:07
  The Grand Lodge of Minnesota that came.
• 11:09
  There were a bunch of masons that brought their sons to the event.
• 11:12
  Did people dress up?
• 11:13
  Were they, were they, were they thinking they're going to be kind of a formal setting?
• 11:16
  Yeah, there were actually, there were, there were some people, there were quite a few people that came in suits and, Okay.
• 11:21
  You know, Reed of course was dressed as he usually is, very dapper.
• 11:26
  And did you wear a sweatshirt, John?
• 11:27
  I wore a sweater and, um, I put the sweat in sweater.
• 11:31
  It was very hot up there.
• 11:32
  Bad choice.
• 11:33
  Bad choice, really bad choice.
• 11:35
  Milk was a bad choice.
• 11:36
  Nice.
• 11:37
  We're not going to talk about that, but, uh, we also had, um, Jeff Huth from the JP four foundation brought a bunch of his mentors and got some really good feedback from those guys.
• 11:48
  But I just wanted to tell you a little bit about how this, this event evolved Scott Berg, who is here with us today, he and I, uh, are involved with an organization called bona fide you and bona fide you.
• 12:01
  You know, essentially what it was is it was the precursor to this civility school program and kind of a precursor to this podcast too, right?
• 12:09
  Absolutely.
• 12:10
  It, you know, Scott had a lot to do, Scott was involved.
• 12:13
  Scott was one of the guys.
• 12:15
  Yeah.
• 12:15
  He was one of the original guys in the whole thing.
• 12:18
  Scott was involved in the very first scholarship that we did and all that stuff.
• 12:22
  So this is coming full circle.
• 12:24
  We didn't have the, the bandwidth to turn this into something bigger than just Scott and me and a couple of other guys, Kevin Gorg and Pat Fabian and a couple of people going around putting on the civility school.
• 12:37
  And I always thought, at some point in time, I would love for this to become a program of the masons of Minnesota.
• 12:44
  For starters, it's perfectly consistent with the values and the tenets of masonry.
• 12:50
  In fact, so much so that the program has really evolved into reflecting many of those things about masonry that are So important to us.
• 12:59
  we got 120 some lodges throughout the state of Minnesota.
• 13:03
  We've got, 9, 000 members in the craft that a lot of those people are people that are very interested in what we were teaching at the civility school.
• 13:11
  Well, this upcoming weekend is Grand Lodge.
• 13:14
  Yes.
• 13:15
  And at Grand Lodge, we're going to be introducing Civility School to the whole group of people.
• 13:21
  You're presenting to them.
• 13:21
  We're presenting to them.
• 13:23
  The objective is to get some of them interested in hosting a civility school at their lodge.
• 13:31
  And I always talk about the fact that when I talk to people about Masonry and People in this area refer to the Masonic Lodge that is in White Bear Lake over by the McDonald's and the, White Bear, County Inn or something over there.
• 13:45
  Do you know about that lodge?
• 13:46
  oh yeah.
• 13:46
  what do you think that that lodge is all about?
• 13:49
  And I'm not kidding you.
• 13:50
  Almost 100 percent of the people say pancake breakfast.
• 13:54
  Exactly.
• 13:55
  It's all about the pancake breakfast.
• 13:58
  The reality of the matter is, it's so much more than pancake breakfast.
• 14:02
  Now the pancakes.
• 14:03
  are a means to an end.
• 14:05
  They put on these pancake breakfasts because it's an opportunity for them to raise money to do meaningful things in the community and then they do those things in the community and that's where Reid and I get involved because Masonic Charities then matches those funds to double their impact.
• 14:22
  one of our goals at Minnesota Masonic Charities is to reflect the charitable interests of the brothers in the Eastern Star Sisters throughout the state.
• 14:30
  So one way that we can do that effectively is through this matching grant program.
• 14:36
  So in that vein, it always seemed to me that the Masonic Fraternity would be a great place to present these ideas.
• 14:47
  And as Reed and I and Tyler Moslepica and Keith Ryerson have been cobbling this thing together, we realized that the, working tools of a Mason, which is, something that we use as sort of an allegory for, Building yourself into the best possible version of yourself really are reflective of the tenets of Civility school and read.
• 15:11
  Why don't you just kind of give us an overview of some of the things that I, and I'll just tell you that in our relationship, I would say that read is 10 times more fluent in Masonry than I am.
• 15:24
  What I bring to the table as I like to hear myself talk, obviously, we know that, um, but I have the charitable angle and, I've spent almost 30 years in this line of work.
• 15:36
  But you really need guys like Reed that are resourceful, that can, I don't know, translate the Masonic piece of this into something that people will consume and understand, so.
• 15:48
  Tell us a little bit about your role in civility school.
• 15:51
  So to what you mentioned earlier, the pancake breakfast, by the way, what a voice, God, you got a nice voice, pretty voice.
• 15:59
  Don't make him feel bad or weird about it.
• 16:01
  Let him, let him talk.
• 16:02
  I'm going to shy away from him.
• 16:03
  Okay.
• 16:03
  I bet you won't.
• 16:05
  I bet I won't.
• 16:06
  It's a special microphone.
• 16:06
  He brought in, I thought that was a little, I'll do your podcast, but, uh, I gotta use my own mic.
• 16:12
  It makes me sound good.
• 16:13
  Bring the whole booth.
• 16:13
  And where's my engineer?
• 16:15
  Oh, there he is.
• 16:16
  Okay.
• 16:17
  So, we've talked about, in another, a couple other layers of this as this came about, that the Masonic Lodge locally, traditionally, over the generations, has been known for many things in the community, of raising money, of giving back, of providing relief to those in need.
• 16:37
  And as people, as the population's, uh, involvement, civic involvement was redefined over the generations.
• 16:48
  And it's different than it once was.
• 16:50
  And John and I talked about a lot about, well, how, How do we trans, so many of our friends will, that know what we do, and they admire what we do, but say, man, what, what do you guys, what is it?
• 17:02
  What's the deal with masonry?
• 17:04
  Exactly.
• 17:04
  There it is.
• 17:06
  Thanks, Jerry.
• 17:07
  They see the photos, the regalia, the, so when we started the, Symbolism.
• 17:12
  Symbolism, exactly.
• 17:13
  It's an allegory, and so when we started this, this, we did this first run of this, I'd shared with the audience, for anybody even listening that doesn't know, okay, Freemasonry, what is it, or masonry.
• 17:24
  It's the oldest fraternal organization in the world and remains a vital force in the daily lives of millions of our members across the globe.
• 17:34
  Through a series of degrees and ceremonies, our timeless core values are passed from generation to generation, Mason to Mason.
• 17:42
  It's a tireless effort to become a better version of ourselves.
• 17:47
  Out in the real world, that boils down to embracing timeless values.
• 17:51
  There's the big secret.
• 17:54
  It's not what the crazy conspiracy theories that are all over the internet.
• 17:57
  I wish it were that even positive, just a little bit.
• 18:00
  That ain't that cool.
• 18:02
  Yeah.
• 18:02
  Yeah.
• 18:02
  It's just not essence.
• 18:04
  That's a secret.
• 18:05
  It's, it's a group of like minded men who maintain their own unique identity.
• 18:10
  But the common thread we all have is that how can I become a better version of myself each and every day.
• 18:18
  Amen.
• 18:18
  That's great.
• 18:19
  So through that, as John mentioned, and we showcase our core values that we call it the tenets of our profession is basically our core values and the symbols that we use and what those symbols mean to us and what those symbols can and ideally mean to anyone in the world, but specifically for a young person that we, Talk about mentoring and relationship building and becoming a better version of yourself or being the change that you want to see in the world in this digitally isolated world that we live in and kids especially, and I say kids, I mean late high school, early college, especially navigating.
• 19:02
  I can't imagine going back and doing college or high school again with this device in my hand.
• 19:08
  And every it's it's just.
• 19:10
  Yeah, unfathomable.
• 19:11
  So we showcased that day.
• 19:13
  We talked about our working tools and to put a little more of a real life definition on that.
• 19:19
  Well, one of which is the 24 inch gauge.
• 19:22
  It's divided into three equal parts.
• 19:24
  Eight hours to serve service to God or a distressed worthy brother as we say or distressed someone we know in our neighborhood or in our life.
• 19:32
  Eight hours for our usual avocations or jobs.
• 19:35
  Eight hours for refreshment or sleep, which is something we all need more of.
• 19:41
  The eight free hours that we have are the most important ones.
• 19:45
  What are you, we're asking the audience when we do this, what are you doing with those eight hours?
• 19:50
  Because You are what you do and not what you'll say you do.
• 19:54
  Yeah.
• 19:54
  And everybody's good at saying these things online or together in a, in a text thread or in a post.
• 20:04
  The big difference is are what are you doing to commit to that?
• 20:06
  So, and I always think it's a c it's a good challenge.
• 20:09
  It's a great challenge and it really makes you think about, you know, those eight hours are really what differentiates you.
• 20:14
  we talk about at the very beginning of the program, about your brand.
• 20:18
  And that you really are in control of your personal brand.
• 20:21
  We asked the group, threw out some names of brands.
• 20:25
  And of course they always bring up Apple, they bring up Nike, they bring up these.
• 20:28
  Superior brands.
• 20:30
  Premium brands demand premium prices.
• 20:33
  they demand a premium level of, admiration.
• 20:37
  And the same thing holds true for you.
• 20:38
  Well, what are the things that you can do to improve your brand?
• 20:42
  And it's really about the way that you conduct yourself And in that 24 hour gauge, those 24 hours that you have in a day, those eight hours, are you going to be a person that builds your brand by serving others, by being a person that's giving, by being a person that, makes a meaningful impact in their community?
• 21:00
  Or are you going to use those eight hours to serve yourself, to play video games, and Scroll on your phone.
• 21:06
  Scroll on your phone.
• 21:07
  And you know what?
• 21:08
  I think that, that social media, it's how you use social media during those eight hours that really are the differentiator.
• 21:15
  somebody like we, we had, on, Miles, Kipper.
• 21:18
  Miles used, social media as a vehicle to tell stories.
• 21:23
  And when he made a mistake, he used it as a vehicle to make an apology for a mistake that he made there are some valuable things.
• 21:30
  I'm off on a little bit of a tangent here, but I think it's important to think about.
• 21:34
  It is.
• 21:34
  No, it's, it's a good one.
• 21:36
  all of us, regardless of age, are accustomed to this digital world we live in.
• 21:41
  We push a button, we get what we want, we want the results.
• 21:44
  But yet, we wouldn't, you can't work out once and expect to be in shape.
• 21:47
  You can't change.
• 21:48
  What?
• 21:49
  Yeah, exactly.
• 21:50
  Oh no, crap.
• 21:51
  That's why I gotta work on a new schedule.
• 21:53
  As we, see you're victim to it.
• 21:55
  As we, we tried to affirm in this that it's, it's not enough to simply want to become a better person.
• 22:03
  You, as you work on your brand, you have to define what a better person is and actually have the stamina to follow through and to have a plan and not just simply be talking about it.
• 22:17
  And we showcased things like dignity, courtesy, honor and integrity, humility, and kindness and respect were the, what splintered off of that 24 into the eight hours of the day, those eight hours that matter the most.
• 22:34
  And it was, John, what did you think?
• 22:36
  I feel that we finally had an opportunity to explain in civilian terms, for lack of a better term, what Freemasonry really is in our hearts.
• 22:45
  Right, we showed, those working tools and how those working tools related to each of those values that you have so dignity was the first Dignity would be represented in freemasonry is the common gavel the common gavel Is an instrument made use of by operative masons The literal stone masons would break off corners of rough stones You For the purpose of literally removing the rough edges of that.
• 23:14
  But as we use that in a more symbolic sense, we're thinking of that gavel as symbolically removing from our minds all of the vices of life.
• 23:24
  The goal of dignity.
• 23:26
  How do we strive to possess those qualities of being worthy of honor and respect?
• 23:32
  Yeah, and dignity is something really that you earn.
• 23:34
  And it's the way that you conduct yourself.
• 23:36
  And we use YouTube videos.
• 23:38
  As we've mentioned in the past, but we use these YouTube videos as examples of, demonstrating dignity.
• 23:44
  And the example that we use for civility school is Barry Sanders.
• 23:48
  We talk about Barry Sanders, how he's known for many things.
• 23:50
  But what he's really known for is, he's considered one of the most dignified football players because every time he'd score a touchdown, and he scored a lot of touchdowns, Instead of drawing attention to himself, he'd flip the ball to the, to the ref and go back to the no coordinated dance, no coordinated dance moves.
• 24:07
  In fact, no taunting, no taunting.
• 24:09
  He even talks specifically about the fact that.
• 24:13
  After running that much, he doesn't have the energy to dance around, and he needs to take some lessons from Deon Sanders for that.
• 24:21
  But, the videos really connect with the audience, with the young people, because that's where they live.
• 24:28
  And we talk about the fact that you are in control of the messaging that you receive on your device, your algorithms.
• 24:36
  If you're a person that likes to watch videos of people crashing into, other people on, those crazy streets.
• 24:42
  Things that are going on, you're going to get fed a whole bunch of that stuff.
• 24:45
  If you're a person that gets cute videos of, of kids with puppies, which I do, you get lots of cute kids with puppy stories.
• 24:55
  Well, it's good to know the algorithm works.
• 24:57
  My algorithm works.
• 24:58
  Yeah., with courtesy in Freemasonry, there's, uh, the plum, the plum line is an instrument made use of by operative masons to raise perpendiculars when building a, putting a building together.
• 25:11
  When you think of the building, if the walls aren't straight, they tip over.
• 25:14
  That's what the plum, in a literal sense, was used for.
• 25:18
  Courtesy is so many things, and we showcase this politeness, empathy, and, Think about how that tool of a plumb line would apply to the upright nature of an individual or person.
• 25:32
  What does that look like in your daily life?
• 25:34
  Well, it's a willingness to apologize to someone, forgive them, to see another's point of view, even if we don't disagree, without poisoning the relationship.
• 25:45
  We can't seem to agree to disagree on social media.
• 25:48
  The point being, can we, how quickly can we divide this?
• 25:52
  So the plumb represents symbolically courtesy that really on a bigger scale demonstrates the power of etiquette.
• 26:00
  Right.
• 26:00
  And one of the, things that we mentioned at the beginning is, is, this is an overview for a program that really has several tentacles.
• 26:08
  And the, the courtesy one, when people came to civility school, they thought that we were going to be talking exclusively about, you know, which fork to use.
• 26:16
  Etiquette.
• 26:17
  Yeah.
• 26:17
  The etiquette stuff.
• 26:18
  And that's part of it.
• 26:19
  But that's just a small part of it that's kind of a separate, on its own program.
• 26:24
  Those are just kind of nice to have.
• 26:25
  And we're going to continue, and we're going to include those in, our graduate degree of civility school, um, but we cover some of the basics.
• 26:34
  There's something to be said about that, about, you know, we talk about table manners and dating manners, and we talk about the fact that Especially for young people.
• 26:40
  It's so good to hear that.
• 26:41
  And driving etiquette.
• 26:42
  You know, there's nothing I like more.
• 26:45
  There's nothing I like more.
• 26:47
  I'm in the wrong lane, and I'm trying to merge, and somebody just waves me in.
• 26:53
  that's the kind of guy that I want to be.
• 26:55
  Like, I'm always, I'm probably, to a fault, looking for people.
• 26:58
  Who can I let in?
• 26:58
  Who can I let in?
• 27:00
  I'm the king of zipper merge.
• 27:01
  Like at McDonald's, you guys probably never go to McDonald's, but when I go to McDonald's every single morning, you know, there's two lines.
• 27:08
  And every once in a while, you have the person that doesn't do the zipper merge.
• 27:11
  You do the zipper, don't be that guy.
• 27:15
  We talk a little bit about that as well.
• 27:16
  Yeah.
• 27:16
  We had some fun with that.
• 27:17
  And also the, the, the pitcher we use the Armando Galarraga perfect game that was taken away from him.
• 27:25
  We've talked about that.
• 27:26
  The fact that Jim Joyce, the umpire apologized for making the mistake and Galarraga accepted his apology.
• 27:32
  Forgave him and moved on.
• 27:34
  Boom.
• 27:34
  Civility.
• 27:34
  As a result, both of them, their brands improved.
• 27:38
  Did you guys have anyone ever saying like during your conversation, just like boom, civility, just keep nailing it in.
• 27:43
  You know, we should do that.
• 27:44
  We could incorporate that.
• 27:45
  Yeah.
• 27:46
  I could just punctuate with those kind of moments.
• 27:47
  Civility.
• 27:48
  Bam.
• 27:50
  Holy cow.
• 27:50
  We've been on for 30 minutes already.
• 27:52
  Have we really?
• 27:52
  Yeah.
• 27:53
  Wow.
• 27:53
  We must have a lot to say.
• 27:54
  We do.
• 27:55
  Well, we've had a few.
• 27:56
  Cocktails?
• 27:57
  No, no, no, no.
• 27:58
  We've had some cul de sac, conversational cul de sac.
• 28:01
  we moved into honor and integrity.
• 28:04
  And symbolically for Freemasons, that is represented by the square and compass that were our most known symbol out there.
• 28:13
  The square masonically teaches us to regulate our conduct by principles like morality and virtue.
• 28:20
  The compass, uh, It teaches us to limit our desires, not seeking instant gratification, but striving to do what is right, the honor.
• 28:29
  So, integrity basically being the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
• 28:35
  I always wondered if the term, oh, he's a square, if that comes in some way from, from Masonry.
• 28:41
  If it doesn't, we're just going to pretend that it does.
• 28:42
  Well, probably.
• 28:43
  I think, and we mentioned in this the, The slang term, let me level with you.
• 28:48
  Will you level with me?
• 28:49
  That is a, yeah.
• 28:50
  That, that derive is derived outta freemasonry.
• 28:52
  Yeah.
• 28:53
  And as is the, well, the third degree of course.
• 28:55
  Someone a third degree that, yeah.
• 28:57
  That, that's ours too.
• 28:58
  But, uh, we talked about humility and the, the level in freemasonry level demonstrating that we are basically descended from the same place.
• 29:08
  We partake of the same nature.
• 29:09
  We share as humans the same hope.
• 29:12
  And even though distinctions among us.
• 29:15
  Are necessary in our lives, in our jobs, in our neighborhood, yes, but no earthly possession, title, or position in life should make us forget that we are all equal.
• 29:28
  And there's huge power in humility, which we talked about at length.
• 29:32
  And the video that we used for that one, and we've talked about it again, is the wrestler that was the number one wrestler going against the number two wrestler.
• 29:41
  The number two wrestler is winning on points, and he dislocates his elbow.
• 29:45
  And the number one wrestler decides, I was losing at this point in time.
• 29:50
  I'm not going to take advantage of this guy's injury.
• 29:53
  And I'm just gonna let him win.
• 29:55
  And it's just, that type of humility is so rare.
• 29:58
  Um, but it's powerful.
• 30:00
  When you see those stories, I mean, one of my favorite things to do during those stories, instead of watching the story because I've seen them a hundred times, is watch the people's reaction.
• 30:10
  And I mean, grown men crying.
• 30:13
  Wow.
• 30:13
  It's beautiful.
• 30:14
  It really is.
• 30:15
  It's a beautiful thing.
• 30:16
  It's humility.
• 30:17
  And then they see me catching them crying and they try and act like they're not crying.
• 30:21
  You're crying.
• 30:21
  I saw you crying.
• 30:22
  Crying.
• 30:23
  You're crying.
• 30:23
  One thing that was shared at lunch after we finished that day, somebody said to me, well, this was great and all, it's nice that we're especially focusing on young people and how we can have a.
• 30:35
  positive impact on them.
• 30:37
  But you know, the kids, the young people that need it the most aren't here.
• 30:40
  Yeah.
• 30:41
  And to that, I immediately defaulted to, well, then it's on us and all of us who are here to go out and be that difference maker in the world to set the example of their brand and of their commitment to things like, uh, courtesy and humility and the, these timeless core values that the world is begging for right now.
• 31:03
  We wrapped up with kindness and respect.
• 31:06
  A topic very, to the kindest chronicles.
• 31:09
  Germane to the kindest chronicles, yes.
• 31:10
  And Freemasons, uh, to that would attach the tool.
• 31:16
  The working tool, the trowel.
• 31:17
  The trowel is an instrument made use of in an operative sense by a freemason to spread cement.
• 31:24
  Unites a building into one common mass.
• 31:26
  We still see that in use.
• 31:28
  Maybe that's probably the one tool that is very common even in today in construction or in a home remodeling.
• 31:35
  You can't get around it without a trowel.
• 31:36
  Exactly.
• 31:37
  You have to have a trowel.
• 31:38
  But we as masons, we say, we're taught to make use of that trowel for the purpose of spreading the cement In a figurative sense of friendship, of kindness, of mutual respect.
• 31:49
  We refer to that as the symbolic cement which unites us into one sacred band of friends and brothers.
• 31:58
  And that, that, figuratively speaking, that cement of brotherly love, of friendship, of kindness, doesn't, doesn't keep everyone, it's, it's not a bonding, it keeps everyone aligned.
• 32:11
  It keeps everyone together.
• 32:12
  It doesn't force it, but it's, uh, A phrase we use a lot of, uh, somebody should pick up that trowel symbolically and use it to spread kindness, to, to be the person to apologize first, all the things we showcase.
• 32:27
  So and when you think about it, you know, putting this all together, the idea of us as individuals, we're all trying to become the best possible version of ourselves.
• 32:35
  We're trying to be as close to a perfect stone.
• 32:39
  That we can be.
• 32:40
  Because in society, as you're building a society, as you're building that wall, the more perfect those stones are, the more likely that wall is gonna have strength because of the fact that it's easier, it's much more efficient, effective to connect with the cement of brotherly love to those around you.
• 33:01
  And if you're upright.
• 33:03
  If you're square, if you're level, all of those things lead to the strength of a building.
• 33:09
  But, figuratively, lends itself to the strength of a society.
• 33:13
  There are people that aren't doing a very good job of becoming the best version of themselves.
• 33:19
  I have a question for you.
• 33:20
  Yeah.
• 33:21
  So this is all, I think this is great information.
• 33:24
  I think having kids hearing this and actually having them open to it and, you know, really taking it in, I'm sure.
• 33:32
  Young people don't take in everything, but even if they got some of this, it's like, oh, this is so these are cool guys Talking about something that maybe I should really think about.
• 33:40
  I don't know about cool.
• 33:41
  Well, yeah, he's cool.
• 33:42
  You're I know I know My question is did you lose people I I'm assuming you must have inserted some humor to keep people kind of interested How did the day go with keeping their attention on on stuff?
• 33:55
  That's kind of dry.
• 33:56
  It's kind of serious It's seemingly serious, even though there's it's important and it's I can imagine Tried they were there for they knew what they're going for.
• 34:04
  But how did you how did you handle the I think we tried to keep it light.
• 34:09
  Um, I think that we tried to inject some level of humor into what we were doing.
• 34:15
  But I think that the video specifically generates such an emotion in people that it really does keep them engaged and it, it gets their attention.
• 34:25
  You know, the feedback that I got was more of those videos, the more of the videos, the better.
• 34:31
  And I think that was a nice way of saying, the less of you guys and the more of the videos, the better, but that's the truth, because for young people, that's what they know, that's where they live, I think, learning from a screen as opposed to learning from a couple of middle aged guys up there talking at them, talking, but I do think that we did a decent job of kind of weaving it together.
• 34:53
  And you made the comment.
• 34:55
  If just a little bit, you know, this is about small incremental improvements.
• 35:00
  And if lots of people get this message and they make those small incremental improvements, the whole thing is going to get better and better.
• 35:08
  And they're going to tell two friends.
• 35:09
  And I'm curious if you still do the exercises.
• 35:13
  Yes.
• 35:14
  Yes.
• 35:14
  Yes.
• 35:15
  Talk about that a little bit.
• 35:16
  Yeah.
• 35:16
  Uh, Steve, you didn't know that I was one of the people that was part of starting this also.
• 35:22
  I got involved in it when.
• 35:24
  My two boys went to the school several years ago, seven years ago, at least.
• 35:31
  Yeah.
• 35:31
  And, uh, And, and I just thought it was great.
• 35:33
  But one of the things that really caught my attention was the exercises.
• 35:36
  And John, maybe talk about that.
• 35:37
  And we've talked a little bit on the podcast about, specifically the yearbook exercise is the one that I think is the one that really gets people's attention.
• 35:46
  And we do this little Dale Carnegie thing where we talk about, we do this quiz.
• 35:49
  What's the most important sound or the most beautiful sound to a person's ear.
• 35:53
  And it's the sound of your own name.
• 35:55
  In any language, when you hear your name, your body has a visceral reaction to that.
• 36:00
  Like a, like a meaningful reaction.
• 36:03
  So we talk about, we ask the people to bring their yearbook to the program.
• 36:07
  And we didn't ask them to do it this time, but we just said go back and look at your yearbook and go through and find two or three people that you've either never seen before, or you just never really noticed before.
• 36:18
  Find them.
• 36:18
  Find them, and greet them by name.
• 36:21
  Very simply.
• 36:23
  And just see what kind of a reaction that you get.
• 36:25
  You might not get a reaction from everybody, but some people you're going to get a reaction from.
• 36:29
  And we use the, the story of Timmy, Timmy Lindquist, and how Timmy, in fact, I'm looking here, this is the little made up check of Timmy Lindquist.
• 36:37
  It's an oversized check.
• 36:38
  It's an oversized check.
• 36:39
  We have a lot of those, John.
• 36:40
  What are they doing?
• 36:40
  A little big bank.
• 36:43
  the first kind of scholarship that we did.
• 36:45
  And the reason that Timmy was selected is because of the way that he taught those people that are sort of the, the loners, the outsiders.
• 36:53
  And.
• 36:54
  the fact that in a high school lunchroom, you're individuality is probably more, uh, obvious or more out there than any place in, in the world.
• 37:04
  It's exposed.
• 37:05
  It's, yeah, you're exposed.
• 37:07
  You're signaling, like, I don't know anyone or I'm friends with people.
• 37:09
  And Timmy was one of those guys that would go around and make sure that people weren't sitting by themselves and would invite them to come together so the yearbook exercise I think is, uh, is a very important one.
• 37:20
  So powerful.
• 37:20
  It really was.
• 37:22
  It's I used to break this down a little in, to your point earlier, a lot of this, yes, is serious, uh, serious concepts.
• 37:30
  Having the YouTube videos or the TikTok videos to illustrate what that core value of integrity or dignity looks like really did help bring it home.
• 37:42
  And in.
• 37:43
  Um, in today's world where divisiveness, inflammatory behavior is rewarded, And young people are, again, I can't imagine how they're navigating this.
• 37:57
  There was a sense of things.
• 37:58
  Yeah.
• 37:58
  We referenced a recent, even in an older P for older people in their career to a recent Wall Street Journal article cited.
• 38:07
  One in five men who are not married or in a serious relationship or recently polled have zero friends.
• 38:15
  Zero close friends.
• 38:16
  One in five.
• 38:17
  Not just one or two friends.
• 38:19
  Nothing.
• 38:20
  the AI generation, there's an app out there called Replica.
• 38:24
  It's with a K.
• 38:25
  There's 200 million users of Replica.
• 38:27
  It's, it's an AI generated friend.
• 38:30
  Yeah.
• 38:31
  And so, we wanted to, you know, On one hand, just share what, what are we about?
• 38:37
  What is Freemasonry about?
• 38:39
  It's timeless core values that we've had, that we've emb that we've embraced for hundreds of years.
• 38:45
  And part of the Civility Project is to lift up and help younger people with that focus of late high school and college.
• 38:55
  To know that these, your brand and your values and these timeless core values really are worth embracing in a world that is so hungry for it.
• 39:07
  But who's going to be the one that will take that initiative and run with it and be that example setter?
• 39:16
  Well, and the timing, the need for this, and in many respects I would argue that the need for masonry it's more necessary now than it's probably been in history because of the isolation that people have experienced and I can promise you No matter what Masonic Lodge you, you go to, if you have an interest in becoming a Mason, if you have a genuine interest in, in getting to know people like that, you'll be welcomed like you've never been welcomed anywhere in your life.
• 39:46
  Because part of it is, it's, it's not desperation, but it's, it's an acknowledgement that people don't join stuff anymore.
• 39:55
  And it's very rare, frankly, for people to come knocking on the door and saying, I'm interested in joining this because people just don't join things.
• 40:04
  And once they join, they realize that, there's a lot to this.
• 40:08
  I mean, we talk about brotherly love, relief, and truth.
• 40:11
  And, we have something for everybody in a Masonic Lodge, whether it's, friendships and that connection with the human being as opposed to replica, if it's, you're interested in doing something for the community, we've got the relief part of it.
• 40:23
  We've got the charitable side of it.
• 40:25
  And if you're interested in kind of the esoteric stuff, the mysterious stuff of masonry.
• 40:30
  We got that too, and it's cool.
• 40:33
  It is.
• 40:34
  It's just And the, the esoteric part is the symbolic aspect of what we've talked about in the core values.
• 40:42
  That, that's where the, the, someone could explore that.
• 40:46
  But Freemasonry is about relationship building, friendship, being there for each other, in life, and the rollercoaster of life, the ups and the downs.
• 40:56
  Yep.
• 40:56
  I have a funeral that I'm going to tomorrow.
• 40:58
  It's not a Masonic funeral, but the Masonic funerals that are put on people blow families away by the, the genuine just admiration that they have for their brother.
• 41:12
  And I've been to so many of these funerals that have a, it's not a completely a Masonic funeral, but there's a Masonic element to it.
• 41:18
  And the comments that you get from people are like, that was super cool, just the way that we honor those.
• 41:24
  Go ahead.
• 41:25
  Yeah.
• 41:25
  I just wanna chime in.
• 41:26
  Um, something John, you and I talk about all the time on the kinds Chronicles is oxytocin.
• 41:31
  Oh God.
• 41:32
  Oxytocin is the, the love, happiness hormone that's happen with hormone.
• 41:37
  It's, it's what you get when you connect with people.
• 41:39
  Yeah.
• 41:39
  And it's what we are craving and what we are in, in, in need of.
• 41:43
  And joining a community, joining things.
• 41:46
  It releases oxytocin.
• 41:47
  Seeing somebody do something great and just connecting with people, that's, we're kind of built for it, so it makes total sense.
• 41:53
  And I just want to say tradition prevailing, our next Grand Master is a guy by the name of Foster Solem, who is the king of delivering oxytocin to people.
• 42:03
  Yes.
• 42:03
  He's the most loving guy.
• 42:05
  He's just the sweetest man you could ever meet.
• 42:08
  Super smart, quiet in a way, but during Lodge, he's a ritual guy.
• 42:15
  He comes out of his shell and it's like watching, I'm serious, it's like watching a master at work.
• 42:23
  But the bottom line with Foster, his, his pin is a, is a pin.
• 42:28
  It's like of a hug.
• 42:29
  He loves giving people hugs.
• 42:31
  And one of my favorite things is watching him give my predecessor, Eric Neatenbeak, a hug because Eric, not a hug guy.
• 42:39
  this has gone on for quite a while here.
• 42:41
  Any final comments that you guys have?
• 42:44
  It's been an honor to be, to talk about this and to share this with, with all of you.
• 42:50
  And it's, uh, it's a very, this is an exciting initiative that as Freemasons we want to get back out in a visible manner within our community.
• 43:03
  That social capital that the Masonic Lodge had in every neighborhood of giving back in that community in a meaningful way and doing so with this.
• 43:14
  Civility project that is aimed at for young and old alike, but especially to help young people in this digital world and AI coming down the, it's life.
• 43:25
  It'll always be about the relationship.
• 43:27
  And AI is going to do a lot for us in the future.
• 43:29
  And as a result of that, all of us need to stay good or get good at relationships.
• 43:36
  Yeah.
• 43:37
  Well, and I think that one of the things that I've discovered, you know, through the Kindness Chronicles is that.
• 43:43
  Even though people in our lives aren't, Freemasons, they're really Masonic advocates.
• 43:50
  They're Masons in the way that they conduct themselves.
• 43:53
  They just haven't gone through the things that we've gone through.
• 43:57
  I consider you two guys, two of the finest people that I know.
• 44:01
  Is Scott included, or are you leaving me out?
• 44:02
  Who's leaving left out here?
• 44:03
  I'm talking you two guys.
• 44:04
  Reid is a brother.
• 44:05
  Okay.
• 44:06
  You But, sincerely, you're Masonic, you just don't really know it.
• 44:10
  And, it's important.
• 44:12
  It's very important.
• 44:13
  we don't do a very good job of, inviting people to join the fraternity, and I'm not going to do it here on the air, but the point is, there are things, that we do as Masons, that you guys do as non Masons that are very, what we would consider, Masonic.
• 44:29
  So I'm just grateful to have you guys as friends.
• 44:31
  the future of our organization, I believe, to be very bright because it's, we're in a unique point in time.
• 44:38
  we always talk about the fact that, politics is such a crazy part of the divisiveness of the world.
• 44:45
  we don't do politics in masonry.
• 44:47
  We don't talk about that stuff.
• 44:48
  It's not important and it's, in fact, it's, it's forbidden.
• 44:52
  We have Grand Lodge coming up this weekend.
• 44:55
  And, uh, for the two of you that are still listening, or for both of you that are still listening at this point, it's an oxytocin fest.
• 45:02
  there's a lot of just great friendships that have developed over the years.
• 45:06
  And I really look forward to it, Is there another civility school in the works?
• 45:10
  Yes.
• 45:11
  Okay.
• 45:11
  We don't have a date yet, but we're going to do one up in Duluth, ultimately, Reid and I would like to turn this over to people in the local lodges and have them put the program on because Franchise that, baby.
• 45:21
  Franchise it.
• 45:21
  Yeah.
• 45:23
  And the price is right.
• 45:24
  It's zero.
• 45:25
  And, and it'll go under a number of different tangents, like John said.
• 45:28
  We will, we may have a, a presentation focusing on men's depression.
• 45:35
  Oh, okay.
• 45:35
  Or something where Pick some topics.
• 45:37
  We partner with the Face It Foundation.
• 45:39
  We may, uh, do something for young men that have prom coming up that don't know how to tie a tie, shine shoes, how do I do some of those things?
• 45:49
  Or young men, young women in a group.
• 45:52
  of some, some sort of, uh, you know, other community engagement initiative that This is going to evolve.
• 45:59
  Yes.
• 46:00
  And the good news is, is it's, in the hands of an organization that has the bandwidth, has the capacity, frankly has the financial wherewithal, To make a, a meaningful impact and I'm really looking forward to it.
• 46:13
  What do you got going on?
• 46:14
  I just want to, I want to present our guests with a couple of kind bars for being our in studio guests.
• 46:20
  All right.
• 46:21
  This is a kindness chronicle.
• 46:23
  Oh, sorry.
• 46:24
  There you go.
• 46:24
  And then now you have a broken chronicle, a gift of a, of a kind bar for, for joining us down here.
• 46:30
  So thanks guys.
• 46:31
  Thank you.
• 46:31
  It's good to see you again, Reed.
• 46:32
  You too.
• 46:32
  All right.
• 46:33
  You too, Scott.
• 46:33
  And, uh, we'll see you at Grand Lodge and off we go.