From the East

Brethren,

First, brethren: I must apologize for the lack of a March Trestleboard. In a very tight month, I just got too far behind. I will make every effort to see that it doesn’t happen again.

I have two topics this month: Solomon’s Wheel, and DeMolay.

Solomon’s Wheel is the name given to the focus of the recent Masters and Wardens retreats. In taking our seven foundational principles, we can use our Masonic worldview to inform all that we do, both in and out of the lodge. Think of a lens, cut rather like an eight-sided diamond. The first seven sections are familiar to us: Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth; and Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice. In mixed groups of officers from different lodges, we were encouraged to examine an issue in our lodge or in our personal and professional life, and to examine its resolution using these seven principles.

But wait, I hear you say: what is the eighth side? It is everything else. In my group, we were told it was ‘communication’.

The thing about these principles, though, is that our wives’ working groups used them in the same way, just as we might share them either explicitly or implicitly with anyone outside the lodge. That meant that they, and we, were encouraged to go beyond the letter of our ritual explanations and really reach for the many nuances of each term. They are hardly secrets, and I can’t think of any better advertisement to the wider world than to make it known that Masonry makes good men better by focusing on these high ideals. Give it a try!

As you know, my highest priority for this year is the formation of a new Oakland Rockridge chapter of the Order of DeMolay. We have been doing preliminary work in this regard, with our first session of formal Chapter Dad (and one Mom!) training taking place on March 15. We have been targeting the April 6 pancake breakfast as our first big public opportunity to recruit.

Structurally, though, we will be having our first Chapter Advisory Council meeting on Monday, April 1, at 7:00 pm. All Masons and other interested adults are welcome to be a part of this session, as Wor. Tim World will be helping us lay out the many responsibilities that we need to take up to make the chapter work. Further Dad training will be available soon, and I am hoping for strong support from throughout the ODR membership.

Our next big event will be an Open House on Tuesday, April 30. As it’s a fifth Tuesday in the month, I’m willing to forego our usual practice time for the sake of throwing the doors open to the community and working together to make a good impression on parents and kids as we look forward to our June 1 formal opening of the chapter.

Please contact Wor. World or me to find out more, and to offer your time. The young men we bring into our Masonic family will learn valuable skills and make lifelong friends. There is no more important work we can do than to work with our young people.

I hope your spring has been a good one. Our Stated Meeting in April comes on the last day of Passover, and just two days after Easter. That means summer is not all that far off, as the calendar pages keep turning. Be sure to spend some of your time with your ODR family!