Letter of the month: February 1998

Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 20:33:14 -0800
From: Logan Hampton <loganh@mail.uca.edu>
Organization: University of Central Arkansas
To: dryfoo@MIT.EDU
Subject: ddr5321.feb@cub.uca.edu

What is the purpose of Freemasonry? Why should I want to be a Freemason? What are some benefits?

To: Logan Hampton <loganh@mail.uca.edu>
Subject: Re: ddr5321.feb@cub.uca.edu 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 26 Feb 1998 20:33:14 PST."
             <34F6420A.59FB@mail.uca.edu> 
--------

} What is the purpose of Freemasonry? Why should I want to be a
} Freemason? What are some benefits?

Freemasonry's purposes include:

• offering a place where a good man can work to make himself better,
• providing a society where the best ideals of humanity's best ages can be preserved, encountered, learned, and practiced,
• giving men a place where they can find friendship, compassion, and badly-catered chicken dinners.

I don't know you, so I don't know if there's any reason you should want to be a Mason. What do you hope for in your life? What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of accomplishments and happy events do you want to reflect back on in your last days? Masonry can teach self-restraint, brotherly love, respect and gratitude for humanity's many blessings and gifts, and the value of hope for something beyond this life. No guarantees, but that's what's available, and that's what we're all working to learn.

The benefits include a really terrific looking little dues card each year and a cool engraved diploma to display on your wall (American lodges only), lots of people around the globe willing to greet you as "brother" and assume your good intentions and trustworthyness (unless you prove otherwise), a chance to memorize some really well-written 18th century prose, and sometimes even a free grand lodge wall calendar. (Despite common myths, Masonry can't offer automatic job promotions, sympthetic Masonic policemen and judges who will excuse heinous crimes, access to the Holy Grail, or even burial-cost insurance.)

I've probably left some stuff out, but that's a start, anyway.

Whaddya think?

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| Gary L. Dryfoos <dryfoo@mit.edu>| MPS; PM: Mt. Scopus Lodge, Malden, MA;  
| P.O.Box 425400, Camb, MA 02142  |          & Ocean Lodge, Winthrop, MA;  
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|     "...one sacred band, or society of Friends and Brothers, among
|      whom no contention should ever exist, save that noble contention,
|      or rather emulation, of who best can work and best agree."
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