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Volume 7 Issue 10

Visit us on the web:      October 2006

www.whitemountain3.org    

Happy 125 Anniversary

White Mountain Lodge #5 Territory of New Mexico

1881 - 2006

Anniversary Celebration October 14th

All local members please try to attend!

10am - Lodge (tiled)

12 pm - Lunch for all

1pm - Open Celebration

w/ Grand Masters from Arizona and New Mexico

Notify Joe Henry (Secretary) - need an idea of how many for lunch

 

HAPPY Birthday 

Thomas E. Anderson

Timothy Conrad

Paul J. Dore'

Mitchell Vuksanovich

Leslie D. Walker

Homer E. Wissmann

 

 

      Masonic

Thomas E. Anderson(53)

Edwin Bacon(46)

James L. Bernstein(58)

Howard W. Champion Jr.(54)

Harold V. Comerford(62)

John M. Fix(48)

James H. Havins(51)

 

Birthdays

David W. Johnson(43)

Charles K. Luthy

Westley J. Parmenter(49)

Kenneth C. Ramsey(22)

John E. Thayer(33)

William K. Watkins(50)

Homer E. Wissmann(54)

October Schedule

14th

9am – Coffee & Donuts

10am – Lodge & 125th Anniversary Closed Session

12:00 pm- Open Lunch at Lodge

1:00 PM - Open Anniversary Celebration

November Schedule

11th

9am – Coffee & Donuts

10am – Lodge & Election of Officers

.                        2006 Officers

 

Worshipful Master Douglas Skowron, KYCH(480-986-2296)

Senior Warden     R. Scott Teichrow (928-425-8293)

Junior Warden      William Garrard, PM (602-866-8204)

Secretary            Joe A. Henry PM (928-425-6686)

Treasurer            Oscar T. Lyon Jr., PGM  (602-252-2739)

Senior Deacon   William “Bill” Greenen PM

Junior Deacon    James Heimer

Chaplain            Paul J. Dore’, PM

Marshall            Ralph Gerhardt, PM

Senior Steward  Howard Billingsley, PM

Junior Steward   Robert Gillette, PM

Tyler                 Henry Johnson

Trustees:

Henry London, PM,        2010   R Scott Teichrow,          2007   

Paul Dore' Sr. PM,         2009   Robert Gillette, PM        2006

Howard Billingsley, PM, 2008

Committees

 

Public Schools - Bro. Jim Heimer

Widows - W. Rusty Moore

Kids Voting - W. Rusty Moore

Education - W. Howard Billingsley

By-Laws - MW Oscar Lyon Jr.

Membership - WM. Doug Skowron

Community Events - W. Paul Dore' Sr.

 

Meeting Calendar 2006

         Oct               Nov                 Dec

   5 - OES #8   2 - OES #8   7 - OES #8

  14 - WM #3  11- WM # 3    9 - WM #3

 

Bikes for Books

I would like to thank Brother Hank Johnson and Henry London for the donation of a bike for our Bikes For Books this year. We also have pledges from Bill Greenen and Bill Garrard. That makes half the bikes for this year and we hope other Brothers will step forward and purchase a bike. Brother Paul Dore' has assembled and delivered the bikes to the schools so the students can see them and give them something to "read" for.

 

Fifty Years Ago

White Mountain Lodge #3

October 1956

Brother George Amberson passed away in Phoenix. A very interesting talk on York Rite Masonry was presented by MW Carey Wilson, past Grand Master of Masons.  MW Brother Conrad Baldwin, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Masons was received for the purpose of his official visit. Brother Ernest Mounce was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason.

Doric Lodge #26

October 1956

Max & William Watkins were raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. MW Conrad Baldwin Grand Master of Masons of Arizona was in attendance for his official visit to Doric Lodge. RW Deputy Grand Master Gerald Craig from White Mountain Lodge was also in attendance and introduced.  Brother Carter Nelms was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason.

 

Something to Think About

From the October 2005 issue of the Idaho Freemason, a talk by Brother Lon Woodbury, Bonners Ferry Lodge #43. Brother Woodbury's talk is based on a book entitled The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry. I think you will like to read his talk.

"The purpose of the author of The Compleat Gentleman was to clear up contemporary confusion that seems to have developed in recent years about what it means to be a man. He reviewed what European cultures over the last thousand years have thought were the best ideals of manhood, and then recommended an essential model for 21st Century Masculinity.
The concept he focused on was the ideal of a "Gentleman" as evolved through the 18th and 19th centuries, a person who represented the best ideals of how a man should act. A "Gentleman," among other things, was broadly educated, would act for what was right and treated women with respect and dignity. This radical idea evolved out of the coarseness and violence of the middle ages.
As I progressed through the book, I kept coming back to the idea that the author's ideas on what a real man, or gentleman, should be, paralleled the lessons of Freemasonry and that is the idea I want to explore. That is, was one of the intentions of the founders of our fraternity to create "Gentlemen?"
In the book, the author explored the ideals held by European cultures regarding the search for the Holy Grail, King Arthur, the Crusades, the Knights Templar, and the Victorian ideal of a gentleman. These and other traditions or myths are often mentioned in speculations regarding the roots of Freemasonry.
As a start, we have to remember that medieval times were in many ways brutal. Life expectancy was short, and disease epidemics were frequent. Every man needed to be ready to defend himself and his family from violent predators. Travel was dangerous and women were frequently considered chattel. Torture was used arbitrarily and most people were subject to the whim of their Lord. The world for the average person was radically different from what we take for granted as normal and acceptable today.
Thoughtful men have searched over the centuries to find ways to develop what we would term "men of character." Each of the myths and traditions mentioned above were at least in part medieval attempts to instill high ideals in men, with the hope that these ideas would become commonly accepted. By the 19th century, these efforts had culminated into the concept of a gentleman.
Today, virtually all men want to be known as a gentleman, even though few really live up to the ideal represented by that term, nor have a clue as to what was behind the concept.
The author concluded that three basic ideals were the essential masculine archetypes that define a "gentleman." They are the Warrior, the Lover, and the Monk. To fully understand what the author is saying, these terms must be better defined to eliminate misinterpretation from contemporary surface understandings.
The Warrior, in medieval times referred to the physical prowess of the Knight, or fighter of the day. However, the author asserts, behind that was the concept of doing the right thing no matter the cost to self. An upright man can be a warrior even if he is an accountant who keeps honest books, or a teacher who struggles to train the mind and character of his students. To be a warrior, physical prowess is still important, but desire to do the right thing is more central to the concept of a warrior.
This root concept is also an important lesson in Freemasonry. The plumb line teaches us to live upright lives and to square our actions before God and man. In this sense, Freemasonry teaches us to be Warriors in our own lives and in our dealings with others, the first essential archetype the author identified.
The term Lover needs to be better defined in our sex-saturated culture. The author is definitely not limiting this term to sexual relations. He has the idea that a real man protects a woman when appropriate and accepts her as an equal when appropriate. These were radical thoughts during the medieval era. He asserts that the secret to getting along with a woman is to support her aspirations and "let her do what she wants." Only partly in humor is the observation that any husband that has a successful marriage knows that one of the secrets of maintaining a marriage is to know when to say "Yes, Dear!"
In Freemasonry we are taught to protect the chastity of the women in our lives and of the women in the lives of our Brothers. I assume the initial surface interpretation of that admonishment to most Brothers is sexual in nature. However, the dictionary defines chastity in terms of purity, innocence and virtue. These terms do not relate only to sex. For example, virtue talks about goodness and power suggesting that the admonishment in Freemasonry to protect the chastity of women is to protect them not just from unwanted sexual advances but to protect them so that they can grow and develop as they wish. Thus, Freemasonry teaches us to be lovers in the sense that we respect and protect the dignity of women, the second essential masculine archetype.
The Monk archetype requires that a man be a student of the best teachings of his culture, always pondering his life's experience and trying to advance toward learning the truth. He also is able to restrain himself, not stooping to gossip, able to maintain a trust, and judges himself harder than others.
The whole of Masonic Ritual contains lessons of life, admonishments to study and to expand knowledge, such as to study geometry as the first and noblest of sciences. We are admonished to keep secrets to ourselves when given to us as such, and correct a brother's errors in private rather than through public accusations. Thus, Freemasonry trains us as Monks, as understood by the author, the third essential archetype.
The Masonic Fraternity was organized more or less in its present form during the 18th century. During this era there was also a major push to elevate men's behavior through the ideal of a "Gentleman," thereby rejecting the man who was ignorant or acted on brutal and violent base impulses. From the ideals of our Fraternity that have been handed down to us, it seems obvious that the founders of our craft were strongly influenced by this movement and perhaps played a major role in it.
However, what about contemporary Freemasonry? Are those 18th century ideals so broadly established in our current society that what we have in our degrees are merely relics of a by-gone era, a remnant of a social battle long since won? Is there no longer any need for the craft to create "Gentlemen" since virtually all contemporary institutions are already doing that? Is the term "Making Good Men Better" simply a slogan without significance?
I do not think so. A quick look at our culture seems to confirm what many critics point to as the "coarsening of society" Young men are increasingly turning to violence and weirdly distorted concepts of honor found in gangs. The increasing acceptance of concepts of "moral relativity" convince many that there is no truth worth making a stand for, so doing the right thing becomes "looking out for number one."
Women are depicted in the media as at best amoral and men are depicted as clueless and hopeless. Popular music celebrates male violence and abuse of females. Education has turned into a race for career training and a liberal arts education that passes on the wisdom and best thought of the ages is becoming an impractical backwater in academics, or a victim of rote diversity. Four letter words are increasingly accepted in both polite society and on the airwaves.
All these are the antithesis of the concept of a gentleman. Although we do not conform to the violence and baseness of medieval times, we are both different from and moving away from the ideal of a society that respects gentlemen.
There is increasingly a need for organizations that advocate the ideal of a "Gentleman" and Freemasonry can contribute to that because being organized as a school for Gentlemen, we have something to offer. We simply need to figure out how to present what we have in a manner that 21st century men of good will can understand and relate to."

 

                                             

 

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