Latest / The Masonic Journey / Walking Thoughts: The Work of Becoming
Transcript
- Josh Kelley: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Masonic Journey. I'm out walking this morning, and with it being Labor Day, I've been thinking about, well, about labor. And that sounds simple enough, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much the whole language of Freemasonry is built around work. We're craftsmen. We are given working tools. We talk about building. We're shown the rough ashlar and the perfect ashlar. We talk about improving ourselves. So I guess the question that came to mind for me this morning is what does it really mean for a Mason to labor? Most of us hear that word and immediately think about our jobs. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's dignity in work. There's dignity in providing for your family. There's dignity in learning a trade, building a career, doing something with your hands or doing something with your mind. I've I've always liked that Freemasonry gets so much of its symbolism from actual working men. These guys were builders, stonecutters, craftsmen, guys who measured things, shaped things, carried tools, and at the end of the day, they could look back and see what they had built. Speculative Masonry takes all of that and turns it inward. Now the stone is us. That's what I think when I think about the rough ashela. I don't see it as this negative symbol like there's something wrong with us. It's more of an acknowledgement that we're unfinished. There's still some work to do. And know there is in me. There are rough edges. There are habits that I need to get rid of. There are ways I respond to people that, well, it could be better. There are things I know about myself that still need attention. That's the work. That's the labor. And that's what I think the point of the working tools and what they're really pointing toward. The 24 inch gauge makes me think about. How I use my time. The common gavel makes me ask what needs to be knocked off. The plum makes me realize and think about whether I'm walking uprightly. The level reminds me how I'm supposed to be in regard to other men. The square asks whether I'm actually squaring my actions by the virtue. Those things sound great in election, they sound great in ritual. They look good on a poster, they look good on Facebook, but the whole point is to use them. And I think this is where we can get a little sideways sometimes in Masonry. Because we can be extremely busy in Masonry without doing much Masonic labor. We can go to the meetings, we can collect degrees, we can join a pendant bodies, we can read every book we can get our hands on. We can memorize ritual. We can sit on committees. We can wear ourselves out doing Masonic stuff. I do plenty of it. But every once in a while, I think we have to ask ourselves whether all that activity is actually changing us. Am I becoming more patient? Am I becoming more dependable? Am I becoming slower to anger? Am I listening better? Am I treating people better? Am I becoming the kind of man that I say masonry is supposed to help me become? Because there's a difference between being busy and building. There's a difference between owning tools and actually using them. There's a difference between studying the craft and living the craft. And real labor is sometimes uncomfortable. Anybody who's ever worked with their hands knows that. Real work can be tiring. It can be frustrating. It can reveal where you're weak. And working on yourself isn't really any different. Sometimes the hardest part is realizing the rough edge you keep noticing in everybody else might actually be your own. And that's not always fun, but that's part of the work too. And the other thing I was thinking about this morning is that the work can't stop with this. If Freemasonry is making me a better man, then somebody else ought to experience the benefit of that. My family should experience it. My brothers should experience it. The people I work with should experience it. The people in my community should experience it. There ought to be some outward evidence. That the inward work is actually happening. Otherwise, what are we building? And that brings me to something else about Labor Day that I think is worth mentioning. Rest. Because sometimes guys like me are not very good at this part. We can get so focused on doing and building and providing and serving and starting another project and going to another meeting that we forget that there's supposed to be balance. Even the 24-inch gauge teaches that. Not every hour is supposed to be labor. There's time for work. There's time for service, there's time for life, and there's time for family. There's time for refreshment, there's time to think, there's time to be quiet, and there's time to stop. And sometimes stopping for a little bit is what lets you see whether the work you're doing is actually worth doing. So I think that's really my Labor Day thought this morning. What am I building? That's the question. Not how busy I am, not how many titles I have. Not how many degrees I've received? Not how much Masonic stuff I do know. What am I building? And maybe more importantly, what am I becoming while I build it? So today, maybe take a minute and look at your own rough ashlar. Where is the work still needed? What needs to come off? What needs to be strengthened? What have you been avoiding and what working tool do you already have that you haven't been using? Because the goal was never just to have the tools. The goal was to build something with them. And ultimately, the thing we're building is ourselves. So that's my walking thought for Labor Day. Enjoy the day. Get some rest. Spend time with the people you care about. And when it's time to get back to work, get back to the right kind of work. The work of becoming Live the craft. Give the craft. I'll see you next time on the Masonic Journey.