Journey into the Heart of the Master Mason Lecture

Ready to journey into the heart of Freemasonry? You don't want to miss this deep dive into the craft of masonry, as we explore symbolic rituals and share insights for a healthier life. We kick off with a recap of the Master Mason Association meeting and a reflection on the importance of a healthy lifestyle. We also acknowledge the leadership of Paul Beckinhouse, who stepped up to the challenge at the Sarasota Sahib Shrine.

In this podcast, we examine the significance of the Master Mason degree lecture, its symbols, and the importance of keeping these symbols private. We also delve into the symbolism of the pot of incense, connecting it to spiritual beliefs and the concept of a pure heart. Our journey through Freemasonry symbolism continues as we discuss the emblem of industry represented by the beehive, highlighting its lesson on rationality and industriousness. 

As we wrap up, we emphasize the importance of community involvement and the role of elder Masons in the Grand Lodge of Florida. We reflect on the power of prayer, wisdom drawn from Ecclesiastes, and the teachings of Solomon. We express our gratitude to our listeners, and conclude with a discussion on the future potential of the Freemasonry community in Florida. Get ready to have your perspectives broadened and your understanding of Freemasonry deepened. You won't want to miss this enlightening journey into the world of masonry.

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• Fred
• Chris

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, chris, yeah, fred, what's a Mason?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
That's a really good question, fred.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
You've reached the internet's home for all things
masonry.
Join Chris and I as we plumbthe depths of our ancient craft,
from the common gavel to thetrowel.
Nothing is off the table, sograb your tools and let's get to
work.
This is on the level.
Yikes, that is something else,man.

(00:35):
That worked really well.
I think, it was a bit charged,I admit.
If you guys are out therethinking what the heck just
happened, I don't know what justhappened.
Audio just happened, man.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Magic box strikes again.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
The magic box is getting better and better.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you magic box.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Those levels were a little high.
So I have to say, hopefully wedidn't blow everybody's eardrums
out just now, really, oh boy.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, we'll fix it in post production.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Anyway, hey, chris, how you doing bro.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Hey Fred, I'm great.
How are you?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I am blessed and I am thankful, man.
We had let's just jump rightinto it.
We had a master masonassociation meeting last night.
That was amazing, man, it wasreally good.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
You can see some photos on our Facebook page Nice
.
Hey, a little plug there forthe Facebook page One of you and
me.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
I have a face for radio, so try to keep that to a
minimum Me too.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Me too.
Yeah, I was.
I got in a big argument with mywife last night when I got home
.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Oh, really yeah About weight.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Specifically weight, because I saw Weight.
Your weight, yeah, okay.
Well, we were at the meeting.
Our ex president was beingbooked and got his mug shot and
everything taken.
So I was reading it and I'mlike, wait a second.
6 foot 3, 215 pounds.
I call BS on that.
There's no way, no way that Iweigh 40 pounds more than he

(02:05):
does no way.
Oh my gosh, she's like yes youdo, yes, you do, and I'm like
pulling up pictures of Trump.
I'm like, look at him.
No, we're the same height.
No, no way.
I'm 40 pounds heavy.
I'm like you need to startjogging.
I'm like, no, this is a lie.
So I have to research that.
I'm curious if they just lethim write his own waiter, if
they actually weighed him.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Okay, but the point of the conversation was I weigh
too much.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Oh, there you go, there you go.
That was the point of theconversation.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, good on you, miss Catherine.
Yes, she's right, yeah, shoutout to the first lady.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
It really comes out in the photos.
You can really see that extra40 pounds.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
And, of course, my comments are not to discourage
you, brother, but to encourageyou to fulfill your health and
nutrition goals man, becausethat's important, because we
want you around.
We need you around.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yes, you look around and masonry.
In general, we need betterfitness.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
You need to eat better and exercise.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm guilty.
I'm here saying I agree, we do.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
We do, we do.
We're not necessarily a masonicthing, that's a United States
of America thing.
We are hugely out of shape andlacking whole nutrition in this
country, so that's somethingthat I'm big on.
I mean, I absolutely love it.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
You look great.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
I have the blood work of a 30 year old and I am
almost 61 years old and I canprove that.
I can show you my blood workand it is true, and I'm telling
you right now.
If that's something you're intoor need to get into, send me an
email, man, I can give you somepointers to get you started,
because I love to talk abouthealth and fitness.
Don't get me started.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
I won't stop.
You had a podcast about thatright.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I did.
I started a podcast about that.
It was called a Holy Fit.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
University.
Holy Fit that man.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Holy Fit University.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
We had a perfect sound effect for that.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Oh yeah, oh man, you mean this one.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, there it is there .

Speaker 1 (04:05):
It is Excellent, excellent.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Anyways, I don't know why we're talking about health
and fitness.
We're talking about argumentswith wives.
We're talking about the soundboard.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
It's good.
We need those reminders.
That's why we're good masons welisten to our wives when they
tell us the truth.
That's right.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
That's right, hey, and I want to make a shout out
to Sarasota Sahib Shrine forstepping up, man.
They did a great thing.
The first thing, they hostedour Grandmasters visit to
District 23, which was a hugesuccess, and we were able to use
their ballroom and they serveda really good dinner and

(04:43):
everything.
Everybody came together andmade it a really, really great
night.
And then, to top it off, lastnight we found out that they
comped the entire evening.
It was on them, so the moniesthat we would have spent is
still in our account.
And I just thought man, thepotentate at Sarasota Sahib

(05:06):
Shrine, is making all the rightmoves, man.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
He's a smart guy, great leader.
We should really have him onbecause I think he'd have a lot
of interesting points of view onleadership.
He took over a very difficultsituation.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
He certainly did.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
During a difficult time and has in one year.
His name is Paul Beckinhouse.
In case you wonder who we'retalking about Right worshipal
probably.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Probably right.
Worshipal Beckinhouse Fromanother state.
From another state, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
But as a potentate, I mean the line behind him have
really gelled behind his vision.
I don't know if it's theirvision, but certainly he's
definitely embodying it.
Visiting the lodges Not to sellanything, he just comes.
He doesn't get up and talk aboutall about the shrine he just
shows up as a brother and is agreat example of more what we

(05:56):
need more of, because the shrinein our district had some
stressed relationships with bluelodges and the appended bodies
and no one wanted to go therefor these official functions
because they had had badexperiences in the past.
Not naming names becauseliterally I don't know who.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Right.
Yeah, I have no idea when thishappened.
It's a long and storied history.
Luckily, we don't know anythingabout it.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
No, ignorance is bliss.
In this case, yes, absolutely,and that's how we got here.
As president of the mastermason association this year, our
primary goal was to raise moneyfor this grand master's visit
and I was like you know, I'mreally not good at this.
I'm not excited about raisingmoney, but how could we help?
Because it seems like everyyear the district deputy really

(06:39):
this is the most stressful thingthey do.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Right, oh yeah, they tell they're like really
stressed out.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, absolutely.
All the planning, picking theplace, the food, how am I going
to do this?
What happens with that?
And they really stress about it.
So I thought let's open adialogue with the shrine.
Out of ignorance, because Ididn't know that there was this
problem, this storied history.
I didn't know.
So, out of ignorance, I set upa meeting.
They were very eager which Ifound odd to do something.

(07:06):
And when I brought it to thedistrict I got a lot of pushback
.
And that's when I realizedthere are some problems with the
shrine Right, but your tenacityprevailed.
Well, I mean cooler heads, itwasn't just me, obviously.
There was people that saw thevalue in a multi-year
arrangement with the shrinewhere we have set costs and not
have to research venues Right,and they really put their best

(07:31):
foot forward with this and I'msure that every district deputy
in our district for the nextcoming years will want to
replicate what the shrine didthere, and more power to them.
It's just a great example ofleadership and working together
as brothers and doing the best,doing the best you can for your
brothers.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, that's right, they went way above and beyond.
They certainly did, and I heardthey got five members.
Yeah, they did, they have fivepetitions for membership from
that night, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
And they have a tiki bar and they often send
petitioners to the blue lodgesthat want to join the shrines?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, because they.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
It's now exactly the ecosystem it's supposed to be
Right, exactly, and we feed them, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
And I love that building.
I got to be honest with you.
It's been there for a long,long time and has a history in
this town and there was a time,man, where it was in Jeopardy.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yes, it was in a lot of.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Jeopardy.
Very recently, yeah, and theytook on a to build a tiki hut
restaurant and the method, thedirection they took it in, was
not advisable and they ended uplong hard process to actually
get to a point where that thingwas profitable and, glad to say,
today it is profitable and itis securing the future of Saheb

(08:51):
Shrine.
It will be there and I justlove that building.
Man, it is a typical picture inyour mind, a typical 1980s
shrine club building, and I loveit.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's a big statue up front of the guy with the fans
holding child.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yep, yep, the international Shrine's
international statue, and thenwe've also got one of the
Sphinxes there.
But the other one had to gobecause the tiki hut is now
where it was.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
But yeah, well, we need the tiki hut.
It's our post-stated meetingrally point.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Our lodge is about two minutes from that shrine
tiki hut.
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
If you're not from Florida, you're thinking to
yourself tiki, hut, what theheck's a tiki?

Speaker 2 (09:37):
hut.
Yeah, we live in paradise.
Sorry, we live in paradise.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
And remember, here in Florida we have as many tiki
huts as we do Starbucks, soevery there's a tiki hut on
every corner and we like it thatway.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
So if you're never far from a tiki hut where they
pour adult beverages, yeah, yeah, and I know that our lodge
visits the shrine a lot, becausethe last time I was there they
were out of Woodford Reserve.
Oh, my guys have been here.
Yep, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Out of Woodford.
That means that 147 has been onthe house Cleans your clock.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, you better stock up on the Woodford.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
That's right.
That's right.
And another thing I want totalk about is one of our
sponsors, which is threeRuffians cigar company Speaking
of the shrine.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Speaking of the shrine, yeah yeah, they have.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
They're working on creating Now, if you're not
local, this is sorry.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
But every shrine has units.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Every shrine has units and three Ruffians.
If you're in the market forpremium cigars that do benefit
Shriners International and couldwe have a, they have.
We have a fundraising.
Full disclosure.
I am affiliated with threeRuffians cigars.
Need to tell you that You're aRuffian.
I'm a Ruffian, but there's,it's based on, it's a fundraiser

(10:56):
idea and it's a cigarfundraiser and we're doing one
with Liberty.
30 Liberty no not Liberty.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Liberty Lodge, number 412 or Manatee 31.
Oh, 412.
Manatee number 31.
31.
Yeah, same building.
It gets confusing it gets alittle confusing.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
There's two lodges in there.
One's a daylight lodge, theother one's a lodge lodge.
Been there since 1853.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Another story.
We were there last night and Ihave the.
I have the broken column in mycar right now for Sarasota Lodge
of the Springs.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Tuesday.
Just saying we did steal thecolumn.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Another.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Another story, but anyways, they have.
Yeah, they're moving forward.
If you go online, go tothreeruffianscom.
I think it is, or is it the?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
threeruffianscom.
Yeah, the threeruffianscom.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
If you Google search threeruffiancigars it will pop
up there.
Hopefully it'll get to the topof that search criteria sooner
than later.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
It's there actually.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
You just.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Google it.
What I'm excited about withthis particular thing with
Liberty Lodge is that it couldbe a really easy fundraiser for
lodges to just pick up and runwith.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
It really is.
Yeah, and it's, it's um.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
You don't have to do guns or ammo, which I know
everyone.
You know it's effective, butwhen you're doing five at once,
it's less effective.
So you need something different, and here you go.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Here you go.
This is, uh, everybody knowssomebody who smokes cigars and
if they know anything aboutcigars.
The premium version of cigarsis what we're all looking for
and, uh, threeruffians workedreally hard to to find a vendor
that would put together, um, acustom blended cigar, and that's
what these are.
There's four different versionsof them currently.

(12:35):
If you go on the website, youcan see them there.
10% of everything that goes to,uh, it goes to Shriners
International and if you'reinterested in the fundraiser,
it's not on the website yet, butthe fundraiser will be on the
on the website.
We'll explain exactly how itworks and what you can do.
We provide everything, uh,including some support, um, to

(12:56):
get the word out there, and it'slooking like this fundraiser.
If it goes the way it'ssupposed to go and I believe it
will um, they should come awaywith almost $1,000 as a
fundraiser just under a thousandbucks.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's not bad for a fundraiser For an elbow grease
to put into yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Not a lot of work, easy money.
Yeah, it's, it is, it is.
It's a great way to get yourtickets, uh, for a premium
product, you know.
You can give it as a gift ifyou don't smoke cigars, or you
can enjoy them as we do, uh,because they are delicious.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
And uh, the government has determined they
are not as cancerous ascigarettes.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Right, so great, right so the.
The truth is the all causemortality.
When it comes to cigarettes.
People who use cigarettes islike off the chain, off the
chart, uh, compared to peoplethat don't.
If you look at the samecriteria with cigar smokers,
it's, it's, it's incalculable,so there's, no, you can't
measure it, because it's so,it's so low, yeah, so that it's

(13:55):
very different.
Anyways, there's a lot ofinformation.
Look at George Burns.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
George Burns.
Right, it's my name, sake.
My father's name is GeorgeBurns.
My name is Christopher GeorgeBurns.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Oh right.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
I'm planning to be a 90-something year old cigar
smoker myself.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Excellent, excellent.
And you can say what he said.
Had I listened, had I listenedto my doctor's advice and quit
cigar smoking, I would not havelived long enough to attend his
funeral.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
It sounds like George Burns.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
It totally sounds like George Burns.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
I love it.
I love it, I love it.
I'm not on.
Anybody under the age of 45probably has no idea who the
hell we're talking about rightnow.
Right, right.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
So big shout out to three.
Ruffians cigar company forsponsoring this show.
Thank you, and and all the workthat they're trying to do.
This is a it's a labor of love.
There is not a lot of money inthis.
It's not about that.
This is a fundraiser.
This is a way to promotemasonry and in the meat and and,
while enjoying premium productsthat us guys love to enjoy.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Well, I think we should also call out.
We have two people that havepersonally subscribed and are
now monthly donors to the show.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Oh, yes, please do.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
I don't know how much , but we can see it in our
software that people havesubscribed, and so big shout out
to worship of P Tars ofBinkitch, who's a past master of
Sarasota lodge number 147.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
And our current junior grand warden right
Worship of Haskell vest nokidding is a sponsor subscriber
to the show.
So thank you both.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Thank you very much, that's awesome.
That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, not something I expected, but yeah right.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I mean, I figure you know if we, if it keeps going
this way, someday we'll actuallybreak even on this deal.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
We obviously you know we're not in it to get rich.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
No, no, no.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
But you know it would be nice not to lose money doing
something you love.
But anybody that's an officeror a district or a zone or
especially a state person youknow that you spend money to be
involved and we get it.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's right?
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
That's what we all spent in.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Freemasonry?
Yeah, and we had Last night wehad one of the.
Is it a candidate for GrandMaster?
Yes, he's running for thejunior Grand Warden next year.
Junior Grand Warden.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
okay, I think we have four people in Florida this
year coming up that will berunning for junior Grand Warden,
and this is one of them.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Alright, alright, now I had the idea of perhaps
interviewing all four of thesebrothers just to kind of get to
know them.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, I think it's wise, and we don't want to make
this a platform for campaigningor anything like that.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, no, nothing like that, not at all.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
But it would be nice for people to get to know who
these people are.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Better, because I've been to Grand Lodge now four
years in a row and I vote everyyear.
But when they're contested it'shard.
They come, they do travelaround and if you're lucky you
get to hear like a short speechthat they offer.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Right.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
You may get to ask a question or even meet them for
15 seconds, but I think it wouldbe way different to hear them
talk about their background andwhy they've been and what
they've done.
Yep, yeah, what makes them tick, and you know what their vision
for the future Freemasonry islike.
Those are things people need tohear.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Right, right.
So I have decided I think it'sa good idea to call for me to
reach out to Grand Lodge andmake sure this is something we
can do.
So I'll be doing that this week, and if they give us a thumbs
up or give us some criteria onhow we can conduct ourselves,
I'm scared.
Then we'll do it.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
I'm scared to call Grand Lodge.
They may be like, yeah, well,you're at it, please don't
record anymore.
You're really embarrassing allof us and we would love it if
you just stop.
And I'd be like no, you'rebreaking up.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
How real is that?
Thought I've had the samethoughts.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
I'm scared to talk about it to them.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
I think we'd rather ask for forgiveness than
permission any day of the weekhere, and we've been going on
that for nearly a year now.
Yeah, I was too.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
But I think it's going well.
Our intentions are very goodfor the fraternity and hopefully
people see that even if we doget boring or off topic or even
God forbid, we're going to haveto get offended by the fact that
we're putting hours and hoursand hours of positive, hopefully

(18:24):
informative content aboutFreemasonry, not just for
members but out there for peopleall over the world that are
interested in becoming membersof Freemasonry.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, and interested in going back to your own lodge
and making some positive change,man, and building the craft
back up.
Somebody told me that there wasa time that there were over
85,000 master masons in thestate of Florida 85,000.
We're at 30, I want to say34,000 right now.
We're less than half of what weonce were and as far as this

(18:57):
show is concerned, we want tosee that number, we want to
exceed that number.
We want to see 80,000 newmasons, active master masons in
the state of Florida.
We want to lead the country inbeing a Masonic state.
Florida is a Masonic state.

(19:17):
Wouldn't that be funny if wewere to be nice?
Wouldn't that be interestingthat the state of Florida is
known for its robust Masoniccommunity?
That would be awesome man.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
That would be good, because right now it's not known
for good things.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well, yeah, it depends on who you are.
For goodness sakes, yeah, thatwhole argument.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Just go follow Florida man and you'll see
there's all kinds of crazy stuff.
You know there's actually aNetflix movie now called Florida
man.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Florida man.
I don't even know what Floridaman is Really.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, so all the social media platforms have a
handle called Florida man andthis profile posts all the zany,
crazy, weird things that happenin Florida.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Oh, okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Like the astronaut that wore a diaper to drive down
.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
She was mad at somebody, like all those kind of
crazy stories, and they'renonstop in Florida.
There's always a weird stuffhappening here.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Well, two things I want to say about that.
One eventually, every nut rollsdownhill to Florida.
We do get a lot of transplantsand secondly, I've already said,
we have a tiki hut on everycorner.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Let's keep the perspective here, okay, yes, and
if we're there, there's noWoodford, so you know, and if
yeah, don't expect to get theWoodford, because we're drinking
all of it.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's too early to even Okay anyway it's Friday,
it's 8am in the morning, andwe're talking about Woodford
Reserve.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
So we're spilling our drinks as well.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm fine, all right, all right, chris, chris, chris,
why are we here?

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, it all started with a big bang.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
It all started when my father met my mother.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
I was born, I grew up .
No, we're here to talk aboutwhat we can talk about in the
master Mason degree lecture.
This is a challenging one.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
It is very challenging.
Yes, we're going through themonitor here.
We're seeing that most of thelecture rightfully so is
encrypted.
So we're not going to be.
We're skipping almost all of it.
We're going all the way to theoptional long form three steps
the pot of incense, the beehive.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
So these are the emblems, the symbols of the
master Mason degree and you hearthem in the master Mason
lecture, always the shortversion of them, and I've never
even read the optional longversions myself personally.
So I'm excited.
We thought maybe I would try todo the memory of the short form

(21:52):
and then Fred would actuallyread out the more interesting
longer version of it.
Yeah, I love that, but thereason we're doing this, for if
you're a master Mason, you knowthe lecture of the third degree
primarily is recounting whathappens in the master Mason
degree, which we cannot.
That's for us, that's forthat's ours, masons, is not for

(22:12):
public.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
If you want to know what it is, go down to your
local lodge and talk to them.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
No, it's not any murder.
There's no nothing bad.
It is a moral degree Right, andit's very symbolic of things
that are important to humans asa whole and it's very
emotionally charged.
The most I think of this.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
I agree, I agree.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
And it will make you think about your life.
And this is the reason thatMason re exists today, because
we carry on these traditions andwe're not going to mess that up
.
But at the end of the degree,just like the others, we do talk
about working tools and youknow the symbols of the degree,
yeah, and so that we can talkabout and that is for public.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
We want people that aren't master masons or even
masons yet, to be able to hear alittle bit about what we're all
about, and that's why we'redoing this with the lecture
discussion and hopefully rightand hopefully it just wets your
appetite to grab that littleblue book of yours you have one
and open it up and read it andstudy it and see where it

(23:17):
applies into your life theselessons are these are moral
lessons designed to help you inyour day to day walk through
life that we can circumscribethose passions and the super
fluidities and vices, Put those,put those down and pick up that
charity and brotherly love andaffection and be a Mason man.

(23:39):
We had a brother last night gotup and told us at the end of
the day, we all need to bemasons to each other.
Hello, what a concept.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Man, that's really cool.
That was really.
Yet again this is an individualI've seen do something very
difficult, very public, veryMasonic.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Just a great example of Freemasonry, and we're
talking about right worshipfulDoug Dobbs.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
I was going to say don't use his name again.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
I don't think he likes it that much, but I was
going to stop us.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Well, I just yeah, let's not gush on on Dobbs
anymore.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
He did a great deed.
He really did he really steppedup, man.
I think a very challengingsituation in his lodge at a
master Mason association andjust laid out publicly for
everybody, for everybody.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
So there's no as a learning lesson.
As a learning lesson.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
This is something bad that happened.
It is a black mark, but itdoesn't need to be for you learn
what happened to us.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
And in doing so he circumvented any gossip, any
falsehood.
He laid it on the table, wartsand all, so everybody could
understand it, and thenencouraged and admonished all of
us.
Now get up and be a Mason aboutit, you know, be a Mason about
it on every aspect and everylevel.
Be a Mason, learn from it andlet's go forward.
And that's why we love the man,love it, yep.

(24:57):
So, brother worshipful burns.
You are going to do the shortform of the steps from memory
and then I will read eachindividual part and ready go.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
The there are, there are three steps usually.
Oh, okay, we're going rightinto it.
There are three steps, usuallydelineated upon the master's
carpet, emblematic of the threestages of human life Youth,
manhood and age.
And you have more.
Yeah, the pot of incense is oh,I thought they went into each

(25:37):
one in more detail.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
This is the short form, and then I'll read the
long form.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Sorry, folks we're.
Oh, I thought we go.
We did do a pre show.
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
All right, so you want me to read this one.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
All right.
So the long form optional.
It's on page 119 of your littleblue book.
Go get it, open it up.
It should be worn out.
It should be worn out by thistime you should need a new one.
The three steps usuallydelineated upon the master's
carpet are emblematic of thethree principle stages of human

(26:10):
life Youth, manhood and age.
In youth, as an enteredapprentice, we ought
industriously to occupy ourminds in the attainment of
useful knowledge.
In manhood, as fellow crafts,we should apply our knowledge to
the discharge of our respectiveduties to God, our neighbor and
ourselves, so that in age, asmaster masons, we may enjoy the

(26:34):
happy reflection Consequent, wemay enjoy the happy reflections
consequent on a well spent lifeand die in the hope of a
glorious immortality.
That's a.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
I mean, it's just so matter of fact, right, we just
gave two 50 year presentationsaway on Tuesday, right?
And this is what you tell thosebrothers when they stand there
is that you're fortunate to beenraised a master mason and
you're a young manhood.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Youth you were taught your duty to God, your neighbor
and yourself.
And manhood you applied theselessons so that in age you might
enjoy that happy reflectionconsequent upon a life well
spent.
And here it is.
Here it is the three stepsYouth, manhood and age, and
they're tying it to the threedegrees a little bit right.
Entered apprentice youth.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yes, they completely tie it in.
That's right.
As entered apprentice, asfellow craft and as master
masons, all representing youthage, sorry, sorry.
Youth, manhood and age, that'sright, yeah, and then that's
yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
And if you're an entered apprentice and you're
listening to this, don't go back, wait, wait until you're a
master mason to listen to this.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
And?
And well, there's nothing.
We're saying that you're notprivy to you, you're allowed.
This is all published.
Yes, you could go on to theGrand Lodge website and find all
of this, so we're not givingaway any secrets.
I don't know how I feel aboutthat anymore, though.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Chris because which?

Speaker 1 (28:08):
part.
Well, I know there's, like wedo, a esoteric discussion group.
We had a brother spoke up andhe kind of curbed our enthusiasm
to go through the Mentor'sManual because he said, well,
there's people here who are EAsand and we don't want, and it's
like, well, all of this, I saidall of this is published.
And he said, yeah, but youstill don't want to do it and I

(28:30):
was like, well, okay, but Ithink that this could only
enhance.
There's a reason why it'spublished.
Parts of it are published andparts of it aren't.
You know, there's a reason foreverything in masonry and I
don't know how I feel about that.
Yet I think that it could onlyenhance.
If I'm an entered apprenticeand I'm going through and I'm

(28:51):
learning the things I'm supposedto be learning, and then I'm
getting glimpses and and justsome, some, some teachings from
the next two steps that I'mpermitted to receive, I think it
just enhances.
When you get there, you know it.
Just it just really enhances itbecause we all know, when we
came as an entered apprentice,when we came into it during our

(29:12):
degree and even after the degree, right up to our givebacks, our
proficiencies, it was tough man, it was a fire hose of
information we didn't have.
I mean, it took me a long timeto.
I mean it did force me to goback and and review everything
and study everything for myself,which I think was a good thing,
but I think it would have beenhelpful to know what was ahead.

(29:35):
You know some of these, thesesignposts.
I'm not sure how I feel aboutthat yet I think.
I think that I guess, I guessfor me, whatever I can learn,
regardless of what it is orwhere it is, if it's available
and if it's published, I shouldbe, I should be learning it, I
should be at least looking intoit.
You know, again, if you're anEA out there, you're thinking to

(29:58):
yourself man, it's just forgetabout it because it's too much
information and I'm totallyoverwhelmed.
I get that.
If you're weird like me and youwant to go forward, you have
that ability to do so.
You can do so.
It's on, it's on the GrandLodge website.
You can go there and read itand look into it, or you can
listen to us.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Ramble on about it.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
The pot of incense is an emblem of a pure heart.
Yes, the pot of incense is anemblem of a pure heart.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
The pot of incense is an emblem of a pure heart,
which is always an acceptablesacrifice to the deity.
And as this glows with ferventheat, so should our hearts
continually grow with thegratitude to the great and
beneficent author of ourexistence for the manifold
blessings and comforts we enjoy.

(30:58):
So let me read that last partagain.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, it's really good.
I'm going to read the wholething again because it's real
short.
The pot of incense is an emblemof pure heart, which is always
an acceptable sacrifice to thedeity, and as this glows with
fervent heat, so should ourhearts continually glow with
gratitude to the great andbeneficial and beneficent author

(31:20):
of our existence for themanifold blessings and comforts
we enjoy.
The pot of incense it glowswith fervent heat I think it's
like I'm looking for the wordyou're.
So should our heartscontinually glow with gratitude
to the great beneficent author.

(31:42):
So you should continuously begrowing.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
I look at it as like the pot of incense is basically
a burning right, absolutelyRight.
The psychic connection isstronger and exemplified by its
pureness to your Creator.

(32:08):
Who accepts that as the most?
I think they say?
Pure sacrifice is to have yourheart in the right place and a
burning passion.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah, right, right, yeah.
And so in the scriptures,incense is eludes to the prayers
of the saints that rise Likethe incense that rises up.
It eludes to that.
You know that incense, so thepot of incense it was.

(32:41):
If you're a Roman Catholic, youknow what.
I'm talking about.
You can call in and tell me ifI'm right or wrong about this,
but the priests they have this.
It's like a ball with a chainon it.
Yeah, yeah, and you're allthinking about Monty Python,
right?

Speaker 2 (32:53):
now, aren't you?

Speaker 1 (32:56):
But, and they swing it as they walk, yeah, and the
incense fills the room and thesmoke of the incense rises above
the altar up to God, and thatis emblematic of, you know, of
the prayers of the saints.
And here it's, the pot ofincense is an emblem of a pure

(33:21):
heart.
So that incense burning with,like you said, burning in the
heart right, which is alwaysacceptable sacrifice to the
deity, it's a burning heart toknow God is always acceptable
and he will not turn it away.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
And you mentioned it's a relation to the Christian
scriptures.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Uh-huh Right.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Which it is replete.
I'm sure it's many timesmentioned in the scriptures.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
It is Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
I mean, you could probably find many passages
about it, and also you can findinscriptions in Egypt, pharaohs
that are depicted having thesame kind of incense.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Oh yeah, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Where they're actually doing the same thing
with it.
I don't know if the ceremoniesare quite the same, but I'm sure
it's somewhat similar.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Oh, absolutely yes, it's an incense.
The fragrance of incense, thesmoke of incense is not unique.
You know, it's true, in Judaism, but even prior to Abraham
being called, there were many,many nations in the world,
tribes and nations and tongues.

(34:31):
Prior to Abraham's call out ofthe land of Ur, you know, the
Chaldeans, from a very pagannation, and he was called to
become the great grandfather ofIsrael.
You know, and anyway, all thosenations, they had all of these
things.
It's not unique.

(34:51):
No, this was all part of thehuman experience, you know.
And these, what am I trying tosay?
These emblems and all of thesethings are emblematic of.
you know, it's the story, theincense, and you know, and we're

(35:14):
going to go into the beehive,so what?

Speaker 2 (35:16):
does pure mean to you when they say a pure heart.
A pure heart yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Wow, okay.
Well, let's see, it meansdifferent things to different
people, sure.
So I think we should ask whatit means to you, because I have
an idea of what Freemasonrythinks it means right what is
telling us it means.
Well, everybody knows mybackground so I don't need to
keep going over it.
But from a Christianperspective, you're a Hasidic

(35:42):
too, right?

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, hasidic, can you tell by the hair?
Hello.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
I think that's a Nazarene, but anyway, it's not.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
He's Christian Right.
Yeah, Calvinist if I recallCalvinist correct.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
So a pure heart before God would be something
that, in and of ourselves, isunattainable.
Only our hearts are purified,only by God and through God.
So in our fallen state, this isChristian doctrine, guys.
So just write, send your cardsand letters to Chris at on the

(36:17):
level of 10.
But in my belief system andremember, masonry is not a
religion we have men from alldifferent types of religion and
I call on every man of everyreligion to know what he
believes and why he believes it.
Because it's worth your time,it's eternity, so it's worth
your time.
But having a pure heart, firstand foremost, would be something

(36:41):
that is cultivated by Godthrough the Holy Spirit.
But also purity speaks to mymotives.
So what are my motives?
Why do I do the things I do?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
So it Like from a good place.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Right.
So my desire to help the pooror to give to those less
fortunate, right.
What are my motives?
Are they pure?
Well, what does that mean?
Well, a pure motive to help thepoor would be to actually help
them in their life.
So if I meet a drug addictwho's homeless on the streets

(37:24):
and I give him $35 because Iwant to help him, well, that's
not.
That motive is not pure becauseit's flawed, because it's going
to hurt him.
So I guess what I'm getting tohere is that the pure motive of
a heart is a motive that'sthoughtful, that you think
through and that you implementin a way that is beneficial to

(37:45):
the one you're trying to help.
I don't know how I got there,but if back to your question,
it's a tougher question toanswer than I originally thought
it is.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah, it's very deep.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Right yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
It really causes you to have to reflect and think
about how you'd answer what thatmeans of pure heart, we say it,
you hear it and you get avision in your mind a little bit
right.
Yeah, what a pure heart is.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
I think in masonry, masonry is a works-based idea,
so it's your working to betteryourself and to be pure in your
motives and in your actions andin the way you deal with it.
And I guess what masonry doesis it lays down a standard.
There's a standard of conduct,right, right.
So if you can meet thatstandard of conduct, then you

(38:29):
are practicing purity in masonry, right?

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, I think we could agree that a definition,
masonically, of what they meanby pure heart is a sincere one.
Yeah, right, genuine, genuine,real Uh-huh Without pretense.
Yeah, no-transcript, undefiledby the defaults and frailties of

(38:53):
normal men.
This is our goal, and you saidit's not obtainable, but this is
our goal, right To have pureheart.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
That's the goal.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
right To be pure yes, and it mentioned sacrifice in
there.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Well, I was just gonna read that the pot of
incense is an emblem of a pureheart, which is always an
acceptable sacrifice to thedeities.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Right.
So sacrifice speaks.
More of a sacrifice is givingsomething that you don't
necessarily want to give.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Right, something that is important to you right.
Something that is meaningful toyou, you sacrifice that thing
Like fasting, for instance.
As an example of your love.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, no, that's right, that's exactly right.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
You're sacrificing these things that are bad as an
example of your love.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Right, and if anybody's ever done any
spiritual fasting I have andit's I recommend everyone.
Try it because it does begin toshift your thinking, because
the most basic need you have isfood and if you deny yourself
that food, I've done 48 hourfasts I've never really done

(40:09):
anything more than that justbecause of the health issues and
other issues.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
People fast from alcohol they fast from like
carbs.
They fast from these thingsAbsolutely.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
But this is different , fasting, from actual nutrition
and food.
Your body really just begins tochange and your mind starts to
go nuts and what happens iswhat's revealed to you is a lot
of these inordinate loves andsuper fluidities in your life.
You start to realize, man, I'vegot a lot of this stuff in my

(40:45):
life that I don't even need,that I'm addicted to.
And after 24 hours of waterfasting, let me just say do not
do a complete fast.
There's no such thing.
You have to drink water.
But if you're fasting after that24 hour mark, if you've never

(41:05):
done it before, if it's yourfirst time, you begin this
journey of sacrifice andstruggle that I think everyone
should go through, and a lot ofstudies have found that it's
extremely beneficial to yourbody.
Your body will go into whatafter 24 hours?
Your body goes into what'sknown as autophagy, and

(41:27):
autophagy is a system insideyour body where your cells begin
to.
The mitochondria in your cellsbegin to recycle.
So all the dead ones, all thedysfunctional ones, begin to
recycle themselves and aredestroyed and sent out of the
body and new ones are created.
And this is part of the fastingprocess.

(41:47):
After 24 hours, this begins tohappen, and they've seen cases
of people who have fasted,long-term fasting, who have seen
amazing recovery from all kindsof disease, and it's just
interesting to me that, as wemake it, I don't know how I got
into fasting here.
Sorry guys, but as Down therabbit hole.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
I went down this rabbit hole.
I went down this rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
But it's amazing to me that the stuff of life, that
which gives us life food andnourishment and nutrition it
gives us life, but we can turnit into death and it becomes
this thing where our health issuffering and then our mind is
suffering and it gets worse andthen when you take it away, take

(42:32):
it away all of a sudden andstruggle and fight through to
the other end.
When you get to the other sideof it, you have an amazing
viewpoint of where you are inyour heart as far as the things
of life and what's important andwhat isn't important.
I recommend it to everybody,but I would say that if you have
medical issues, anything likethat, just make sure you're

(42:54):
talking to a doctor or anutritionist or something.
Don't just go hog wild and do a72 hour fast without it Talking
to anybody.
It won't be fun.
It will not be fun and it won'tbe good.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
Well, my wife would probably appreciate it if I did
it, apparently.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Well, and that's the thing, we gotta catch up to
Trump's weight Fasting 40 poundslighter than me.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Come on.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
That's cause he eats nothing but McDonald's once a
day.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Real, not real.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
But yeah, so that is a really deep way to look at the
pot of incense.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, I'm gonna give a lot more thought to this
purity of heart.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, and sacrifice that you're making Sacrifice
sounds scary to people, but it'sa way of love.
You do it when you're married.
You sacrifice for your children.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
It's a way of life.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Sacrifice.
It's a right of humanity thatwe deny ourselves our animal
instincts.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
For the betterment of people we love.
Sacrifice is an everyday partof our life.
It should be.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
I agree, it's part of our life, I agree, and that's
part of the masculine man.
A true masculinity is he's theone who sacrifices and he gives
up his earthly desires for hiswife, for his children, for his
family, and he sacrifices.
Not every guy wants to get upon Saturday morning and go to

(44:16):
work.
He'd rather have a boat or aHarley Davidson and he'd rather
go out and do his own thing.
But sometimes we can't, youcan't.
You have to sacrifice yourdesires for the benefit of those
who depend on you, and that isa sacrifice.
That's a worthy sacrifice, forsure, and it's one, according to

(44:37):
this book, right here, that isacceptable to God the
sacrificing of one's own desiresfor the benefit of another.
And how masonic is that?
That's about as masonic as youcan get brother.
All right, the beehive.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Beehive is an emblem of industry.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
It is an emblem of industry, and that so makes
sense.
Everyone's seen a beehive.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
This is my favorite masonic symbol.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
It's a little long, so I think I'll do the first
paragraph and we'll break.
So the beehive.
The beehive is an emblem ofindustry and recommends the
practice of that virtue to allcreated beings, from the highest
seraph in heaven to the lowestreptile of the dust.
It teaches us that as we cameinto the world, as we came into

(45:22):
the world rational andintelligent beings, so we should
ever be industrious ones, neversitting down content while our
fellow creatures around us arein want, especially when it is
in our power to relieve themwithout inconvenience to
ourselves.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Hello, is this thing on?
Wow?
I mean okay logistically.
The reason I love the beehiveis a masonic symbol.
I was always afraid of bees asa kid, but now I'm married to
somebody whose family have 20beehives at their house and I
need to go out and observe thesethings and it's just

(46:00):
fascinating the beehives, thestructure of the colony of a bee
is about as perfect a systemthat you'll find in nature Right
.
They work together for commongood instinctively.
You can take a bee miles fromits home and it will get back.
It knows where to go.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Right.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
And it needs to travel, obviously, to find, you
know, a substance that's thework of the worker bee.
Then there's this wholegeometric part of the beehive as
an emblem, right it's likeperfect geometry in nature.
The honeycomb is insane.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Isn't it octagons?
Like enjoying the octagons.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Which makes it so strong and also able to contain
life.
It's just fascinating.
Fascinating the way that itworks and as an emblem, we talk
about it being a symbol ofindustriousness, because bees
are never resting.
Always working, they're alwaysworking, constantly working for
the betterment of the colony,and I think that's what we, as

(47:00):
masons, need to take from thisemblem is that we should be like
a beehive.
Inside is this perfect, sacredgeometry that we fill with life
and together we build it.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, constantly.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
There's never a day that you can be like we're good,
it's good now.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
No, it's never good.
It's never good.
We need to be industrious.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Constantly working together.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
And it just made me think of within the large
structure.
Industriousness requires us toall do our part.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
And when somebody is not doing their part and I'm not
saying somebody being lazy ornot showing up that happens all
the time but I'm talking aboutsomebody who is more on the
negative side, who is bringingnegativity or not fulfilling
their role properly into thelarge system.
It causes incredible damage.

(47:57):
I know I've seen pictures oflike a wasp colony attacking a
beehive and the damage that itcauses in there and bees don't
play man.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
They can fight.
Yeah, oh yeah, my neighbor,I've told you, my wife's dad has
20 beehives.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Literally killed the neighbor's dog.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Wow, and they found the dog dead From bee stings.
Yeah, the bees just got him,killed him.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
They know how to defend their land in their home.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Against great a dog is not much for bees.
They could just eat 100 of themprobably.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Right, right, but it's a good lesson for us to be
protective of the beehive beprotective.
And be protective of your lodgeand make sure that your
brothers in the lodge are doingwhat is supposed to be done and
not making it about themselves.
That's the one thing that I seea lot of lately.

(48:58):
I'm just conscious of it latelythat if you're in a lodge
structure, if you're in the line, whoever you are, whatever
position you're holding, andyou're making this about you,
then you're negatively affectingthe hive.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
It's not gonna grow.
It's not gonna grow, it's notgonna go forward and you're
gonna lose your fellows alongthe way.
And we've seen it over and overagain.
When that happens, it puts theentire industriousness of your
lodge on hold until it's beendealt with.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
And sometimes it's an easy fix and sometimes it's a
big, major fix, man, that has tobe done by others.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
It's a multi-year fix .

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, right, right.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Yeah, but I mean that's true, you have one leader
, and that leader, the queen ofthe hive, is not ruling like
micromanaging the everydayoperation of those bees.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Right, yeah, those bees know what to do Exactly.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Those bees don't need any direction or guidance.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Perfect analogy right .

Speaker 2 (50:01):
They're gonna go do what they need to do, and the
queen does what that one memberdoes, which is to create new
bees.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
That's the purpose.
And the master of the lodge iskinda like the queen bee in the
hive.
They're not out there fightingand guarding, but they are the
heart of the entire hive and alllight comes from that.
For that one year Right.
And so if you are fortunateenough to become that person in

(50:35):
the lodge or in a state ofleadership, in Freemasonry, or
in work or in life, you have toremember that you're serving the
colony, everyone's depending onyou.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
And if you make it about yourself, they start to
die and become disorganized tochaos and you upset many
independent lives for the focusof one.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
But really you're supposed to be sacrificing that
one for the benefit of the rest.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Yeah, that's right.
For the ultimate goal, you know, and they all work towards the
ultimate goal, and for thebeehive, it's that honey man
that they create that honey.
That honey is something else,man.
The process of how that's doneis fascinating man.
Yeah, it's crazy, justabsolutely fascinating, and it
makes sense that that is aMasonic teaching for

(51:23):
industriousness from the beehive.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
It's a perfect Masonic Because it totally makes
sense.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Let's read on, let's see what else is here.
When we take a survey of nature, we view man in his infancy
more helpless and indigent thanthe brute creation.
He lies languishing for days,months and years, totally
incapable of providingsustenance for himself or
guarding against the attack ofwild beasts of the field or

(51:49):
sheltering himself from theinclement seas of the weather.
It might have pleased the greatcreator of heaven and earth to
have made man independent of allother beings, but as dependence
is one of the strongest bondsof society, mankind were made
dependent on each other forprotection and security, as they
thereby enjoy betteropportunities of fulfilling the

(52:12):
duties and reciprocal love andfriendship.
Thus, man was formed for asocial and active life, the
noblest part of the work of God,and he that will so demean
himself as not to be endeavoringto add to the common stock of
knowledge and understanding maybe deemed a drone in the hive of

(52:34):
nature, a useless member ofsociety and unworthy of our
protection as masons.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Wow Dang that is a big one?

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Yeah, because the man who does not deem himself right
.
So if you're not part of thesolution in masonry, then this
right here, this statement righthere, kind of questions.
Should you even be here, right?
Isn't that kind of what it'sdoing?

(53:07):
Maybe deemed a drone in thehive of nature and a useless
member of society, unworthy ofprotection as masons.
Unworthy of protection asmasons, I mean, at some point.
If you're causing all theseproblems inside the hive and
you're sacrificing theindustriousness of your lodge,

(53:30):
at some point your fellow beesare gonna be like man.
You gotta go.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Yeah, you're dead weight to us.
You're killing us here.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
You're killing it, man, and that's a pretty stern
warning.
But I think it's important thatthe Grand Master's slogan for
the year is stronger together,right, Stronger together.
Stronger together, and that'sexactly right Putting away our
differences, putting down ouregos and figuring out together

(53:59):
how we might work and agreebetter, how we might be better
at what we try to do every timewe walk into that lodge and walk
out of it.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
You see why the beehive is such a great emblem.
Yeah, I love it, just love it.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, the analogy is.
It's almost a perfect analogy,right, Everything about it.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Yeah, yeah, and it's got that geometry baked into it
Geometry you know.
What we gotta do, too, is talkabout the prayers that we use in
the circumambulation.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Because in the Master Mason degree in particular it's
on another level.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
I don't know if you wanna do that today, but it's
gonna be an amazing conversation.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
I'm not finding it in my little blue book.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
I've got it.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Oh, you know it.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
All right, we'll do the first one.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Let's do it.
Let's rabbit trail go so thisis the Master Mason degree.
I put the book down, by the waygo.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
And there are points in each of the three degrees,
when prayers are read, thatrelate to the degree you're
going through at a certain point, and then the Master Mason
degree.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
it's just Should I look to make sure that they're
not, oh no, they're right out ofthe Bible.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
So there's no worries here.
Remember now thy Creator in thedays of thy youth, while the
evil days come not, nor theyears drawn nigh when thou shalt
say I have no pleasure in them.
So remember now thy Creator inthe days of thy youth, while the
evil days come not, nor theyears drawn nigh, when thou

(55:36):
shalt say I have no pleasure inthem.
So it's saying you're young,you think you're invulnerable,
you think you're gonna liveforever.
But it's gonna be hard daysahead until you need to remember
your Creator when you're havingthose good days.
And we talk about this in theEntered Apprentice degree with
the checkered pattern.
We get a lot of questions whenpeople see our Lodgerum because

(55:59):
there's a checkered patternunder the altar and in Masonry
to us that it talks about thelight and the darkness in each
of us.
And here we are in the MasterMason degree, starting out the
prayers with.
You're in a good point in yourlife.
These are happy times, the sunshining on you, but don't forget
about your Creator.
Don't get cocky, right, right,because the darkness is coming

(56:24):
and you're gonna need that help.
So when the sun's on your faceand life is easy, don't take
advantage, really enjoy it anddo the best you can to support
others.
It's what I think this issaying.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Well, and it is.
And you know who wrote it right.
It's in Ecclesiastes, chapter12, verse one.
It's Solomon.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Correct Ecclesiastes, chapter 12.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah and so that's, and the book of Ecclesiastes is
an amazing book.
It's one of those books where,if you don't really understand
where it's coming from, it couldreally depress you.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
Yeah, I see that.
I mean because you learn theseprayers as one of our
proficiency cards in Florida,and so memorizing them is a
different thing than hearingthem, because to memorize it you
have to understand it Right.
So you start to read into thisstuff and it is so poignant.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Well, and the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon writing
in his elder years towards theend of his life, okay, and he
says things like vanity ofvanities, all is a chasing of
the wind.
And he says that I set myselfto wisdom and I set myself to
pleasure, and this I found alsoto be a chasing of the wind.

(57:36):
And he goes on and on and on.
Throughout his it's like Ithink it's 13, 14 chapters long
and it's beautifully written andit's absolutely poetic.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
It's worth a read.
It is extremely poetic.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Yeah, it's worth.
The whole book is worth a read,but in the very end, the very
last statement is and now thematter has been spoken and all
is taken into consideration.
Here, says the preacher, or theevangel here's, or the king
he's talking about himself saysthis Honor God, obey God and

(58:11):
honor the king, for these arethe main things in life.
I'm butchering the heck out ofit, but what he's saying is
after it's all said and done,I'm the richest man in the world
.
I literally have 600 women thatI'm accountable for.
Throughout my life I've beenwith 600 women, half of them are
actual wives.
I've had more gold, morepalaces, more than anybody, and

(58:35):
I set my mind to experienceeverything fully as I possibly
could.
And I can tell you this at theend of my life serving God and
doing what is right before himis the only thing that really
matters.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Dang, there you go.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Right and this is the wisdom of Solomon, and we
masons take Solomon veryseriously, Very seriously, and
what's the next?
One.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Well, the sun, or the light, or the moon or the stars
be not darkened, nor the cloudsreturn after the rain.
So this is just again.
You're talking about the youthof our lives and how it's always
sunny and you don't reallyworry about these bad things.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Right.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
But you still need to remember your Creator In the
days when the keeper of thehouse shall tremble and the
strong men shall bow themselvesand the grinder cease because
they are few, and those thatlook out of the window be
darkened.
So here we go the keepers ofthe house shall tremble, the

(59:37):
strong men bow themselves, thegrinder cease because they are
few.
What are they talking aboutthere?
Symbolically, an old man'steeth the grinders cease because
they are few.
In our age our teeth start todecay and fall and those that
look out the windows be darkened.

(59:57):
So we get cataracts.
In our age we can't see anymore.
Now we're talking about what'sgonna happen to us as we age,
and the Master Mason degreewants us to take a good look at
this.
And the door shall be shut inthe streets when the sound of
the grinding is low and he shallrise up at the voice of the

(01:00:19):
bird and the daughters of musicshall be brought low.
Now he can't hear, he can't eat, he can't see, he can't hear,
he can't even hear music anymoreand he's waking at the sound of
the bird.
So he can't even get a goodnight's sleep in his age, right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Even though he's rich and he has all the things in
the world, all the things thatare supposed to be important.
But keep in mind, this is allcoming.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
And when they shall be afraid of that which is high
and fear shall be in the way andthe almond tree shall flourish
and the grasshopper shall be aburden and desire shall fail
because man goeth to his longhome and the mourners go about
the streets.
Here we go Now.
Fear prevents you from doingthings that you did as a man.

(01:01:10):
Insects can completely wipe youout because you can't really
control or work your fieldsanymore.
Desire fails we're not evenmanly in our age anymore and
ultimately we go to our longhome, which means we're going to
die, and the mourners go aboutthe streets our family and the

(01:01:33):
people that remember us.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
And everything that you've accumulated throughout
your entire life goes tosomebody you may or may not have
even known.
It's just gone.
It's just gone.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden
bowl be broken, or their pitcherbe broken at the fountain or
the wheel broken at the cistern,then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was and thespirit shall return unto God who
gave it.
Wow, this is what we remember,or try to make our Master Mason

(01:02:07):
degree candidates think about.
This is what the chaplain'stelling them while they're going
through the ritual.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
If only there were some sort of visual like a
closet with a mirror, a candleand a skull, that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
It kind of really ties into this right, Right,
Remember your creator.
These are the days of youryouth, right, we're strong
relatively.
Relatively yeah, we're capable.
We can hear, we can see, we canenjoy the pleasures of music
and sound.
We can see everything well,with glasses, both of us.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
We can still see.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
We have grinders in our mouth, we can still hear fun
.
It's like we're men.
But these are the days when wehave to remember that this will
not last for long.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Our shells or vessels or whatever you want to call
this.
Earthly life is short, veryshort, and the eternity is a
long time compared to your lifeon this earth, and we need to
think about our creator whilewe're here, especially when the
times are good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Yeah, I agree.
I would encourage every manwho's listening to this to begin
that contemplation, if youhaven't already, because we're
masons, man, you're a mason, soyou're supposed to contemplate
these important issues, and itmay seem morbid to some people
who are new at this, but it'sone of the most important things
you can do is to consider yourmortality.

(01:03:34):
You know momento more.
Remember you must die, rememberthat you must die.
That time is gonna come whenall your work, all your efforts,
all the things that you've donewill be gone, will they count?
Nobody lays on their deathbedand says, gosh, I wish I would
have closed one more deal.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
I wish I would have stayed an hour more at work, you
know, and sacrificed the livesof my loved ones.
Nope, nobody says that.
I can tell you.
I did chaplaincy work inhospitals.
I can tell you right now it'salways the same, you know, it's
always the same.
You know, the regret is thesame.
Relationships, relationshipswith other humans and my

(01:04:15):
responsibility to be mybrother's keeper, that's what
matters in the end.
Yeah, and this calls us tothink about it now, while we're
young and strong.
Yeah, and do something about it.
Get up and do something aboutit.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Not out of fear, not like, oh my God, I'm gonna die,
or guilt, no fear, guilt causethat's paralyzing, that has to
do with punishment and fear youdon't wanna do that Masonry, as
in many religions although youknow it's not a religion, but it
does have a lot in common withthis aspect of religion, which
is not to fear death as a thing,that is, a final, you know, end

(01:04:54):
to your existence.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
But a gift, that your death is a gift, a final
transformation into a betterstate of being.
But you know, ultimately we'rehere for a reason, and lots of
different faiths believe there'sgoing to be a judgment for the
acts that you do Well here inthe body, and so you've gotta be

(01:05:19):
careful with what you do withthe time that you have, and they
call them the evil days in thebeginning, when the evil days
come not, and I believe thatmeans being old.
They call those the evil days,right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Yeah, it could be, or it could be, you know, good
times and bad times.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
It could be bad times .
You know, good times come andbad times come.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
It's just the nature of the world we live in, you
know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
Yeah, and there's also a Italian in the master
mason degree to the harvestthing of crops, which is also
emblematic of the cycles of life.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
We talk about, especially in the master mason
degree, the sheaf of wheat andthe what do they call it
Threshing the threshing floorRight when they would thresh the
wheat Right right, which is abig part of symbolism of the
master mason degree, and you'veexplained this before.

(01:06:13):
You probably do a better jobthan I could have.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Go for it, you can do it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
It's got something to do with beating the wheat and
the casing coming off of theactual, the chaff, the chaff
right, which leaves the actualgood stuff that's inside the.
You know the chaff Yep that weneed to get to, that.
We pound into flour and usethis to make bread and food, and
this is a natural cycle.

(01:06:38):
We have to grow it, we have totend to it, we have to care for
it and then we have to harvestit and reap it and in order to
make it usable, you've got to gothrough this process of
Threshing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Threshing, yeah, they toss it in the air and the wind
blows away the chaff.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
Which is the unnecessary hard shell that
protected it its whole life.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
The bad stuff, the useless stuff, the stuff that is
of no longer any value, thatblows away in the wind, and what
falls to the ground is thefruit, is the good stuff, is the
nourishment, and I love thatanalogy, man, that's really good
.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
This is all the Master Mason degree.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
You get it in the degree, you get it in the
lecture, which is what we'retalking about, and even in the
prayers it's somewhat referenced.

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
Wow, this has been a great conversation.
Once again, brother, I'm goingto say that we're probably at
the end of it.
I don't know.
We could go on and on and on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
We got through a few symbols.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
We'll jump back in next week and do it again.
One more Keep an eye out forour interviews coming up here.
We're going to try to get asmany people on as we can.
I've got a couple of guys outthere who are tentatively
scheduled.
Hang in there, guys, we willget you scheduled and get our
interviews going.

(01:08:04):
I'm really enjoying theinterviews.
It's getting really informative.
I think the format I like theformat, getting to know these
people.
You were asking mosthorse-whirl foster about where
he went to high school where hegrew up and his family, life and
stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Military and military .
It's like to have a youngfamily while you're in the
military.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
How does masonry fit into your life?
You notice, there's a commontheme from these guys, which
they wish they did sooner.
Yeah, it's a common theme.
That's the one thing they say.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
I'm raising my hand right now.
Absolutely, I wish I'd done ita lot sooner.
It would have definitelychanged the course of my life.
But we can't go back.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
But we can go forward .

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
What we can do, what you and I can do and what we do,
brother, is we encourage youngmen who are listening to this
podcast to go deeper intomasonry and to be that 50-year
guy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
Get in there as a young man and be the 50-year guy
We'll be long gone, I wasthinking about that we do these
presentations for these 50-yearmasons and it becomes painfully
aware you're not going to seethat yourself Not going to see,
I know I'm not.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
I'm living to 122 years old.
That's not going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
It makes it so much more special to witness it for
someone that has had the 50-yearexperience, and I'm hanging on
every word when we ask them tosay something.
Absolutely, I'm just dying tohear what they're going to say
Right, it's just a reallyspecial time to see a man be

(01:09:43):
honored for 50 years in thefraternity Right and get a
symbol from Grand Lodge thatsays I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
And we do.
We make it a ceremony.
That's a memorable experience.
I think, for that brother andthey get grand honors,
well-deserved grand honors,which is rare in masonry that a
mason gets that.
And then in our lodge we liketo let them talk and that's
their chance to reflect on 50years of masonry in front of
their brothers.

(01:10:11):
Wow, Make it next timesomeone's doing a 50-year
presentation in your lodge.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
It's a very powerful experience.
And take the time to shake thebrother's hand and listen to him
.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
You know there's a lot of wisdom there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
They've seen it all.
Man, 50 years in lodge, they'veseen it all.
They have wisdom to impart tothe lodge.
Our elders in masonry are avaluable resource and we need to
get them more involved and getthem back in lodge doing I don't

(01:10:47):
know.
We had a move to try to getpast members to come back to
lodge to help with catechism,remember, and we were talking
about doing that because theyknow it and asking them.
You know how come you're not inlodge.
We need you.
Get in here, man.
We need you to do.
It's an easy way to contribute.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
You don't have to tie yourself to being an officer,
which is crazy, I understand andyou're giving up an hour a week
, maybe.
It's not that much really, andyou're doing a huge service to
the lodge and you're reallypotentially changing people's
lives.
You connect with them andyou're there tethered to

(01:11:25):
Freemasonry for about six months.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
You are Freemasonry to those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
Everything you say, everything you do, they're
judging.
They're looking closely at itbecause they're watching you as.
Oh, this is how Freemasonsbehave.
This is the only Mason I'mclose to.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
And you will have won the affection of these young
Masons for the rest of theirMasonic career.
They'll always remember you.
So shout out to any of ourelder statesmen.
I'll say If you're a brotherwho's staying at home because
you haven't been to lodge in awhile, because maybe it's too
hard to get there or you're justnot as involved as you used to

(01:12:02):
be and you've got some years inlodge, reach out, go back, say
hey, I can help with catechism,I can help with mentoring.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
You would be a hero to your lodge.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
Yeah, the call went out last night from our DDGM
that we definitely need to startthinking about catechism
instructors and mentors, becausewe are on an upswing with
membership and, as membershipcomes, if you don't have the
proper systems in place and youneed to have the Catechism

(01:12:35):
instructors and mentors, you'regoing to have a problem.
You're going to have a bigproblem and it's not going to be
fun at all for anybody.
We need to push everybody thestate of Florida, everybody
listening to this we need topush for more catechism
instructors, more mentors, morepeople involved in the
day-to-day workings of makingnew Masons.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
In Florida.
The Grand Lodge is providingtools to the lodges in Florida.
You can bring an unlimitednumber of Masons into your lodge
.
They're paying for it, they'reproviding the tools.
It's so easy.
The hard part is making yourlodge fulfill the promise of
Freemasonry to the guys.
That's the hard part really.
I mean Acting like Masons,doing things that Masons are

(01:13:18):
supposed to do.
Be visible, do charity, notjust charity for your lodge, not
just charity for the GrandLodge or the Scottish Rite or
the Shrine, but for thecommunity and for people.

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
I mean it's good to do charity for Masonry too, and
I'm not knocking that.
But I think the community atlarge could.
They will never be aware of anyof the charity we're doing just
for ourselves.
The only way they'll be awareis if we do it for them.
And charity isn't just givingmoney, it's about spending time
with people.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Right, yeah, giving money for a lot of people is
easy.
That's easy.
You just stroke a check andmove on.
But actually giving your timeand giving a part of yourself to
another, you won't find toomany things that are more
fulfilling, I can guarantee youthat, brother.
It's certainly worth it.
I'll give you that guarantee.

(01:14:11):
You won't regret it.
Let me just tell you that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Yeah, so we've got another esoteric discussion
coming up tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
Yes yes, it's getting bigger and bigger it is getting
bigger and bigger, and I justlove the fact that it's at
different people's homes everytime we do it.
Man, that is just so cool.

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
I really, really think we should do some kind of
a live broadcast at one of theseso that people can see how to
do it.
Okay, I think you hear it andit's kind of scary to organize.
It's a lot of people and I'mscared of the idea of
entertaining 20 people in myhome.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
It's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
But when you see how it really can go it's not that
scary or intimidating at allYou'll see how actually easy it
is, and it takes a lot of lifeof its own.
You don't have to put thatpressure on yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Yeah, I think last time somebody ordered pizza and
everybody brought their owndrinks and it was just a matter
of sitting down and talking,right, I mean, it wasn't a big.
It doesn't have to be a big,stressed out production.
It doesn't have to be.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
It's a great, it's a conversation you don't have to
prep and have notes of thingsyou're going to reference to be
smart about.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
In fact that tends to kind of inhibit people from
really just opening up andwanting to just share, and a
conversation emerges out of thegroup as everybody begins to
share.
And I tell you it's very uniquebecause these kinds of
discussions in large groups arevery rare and the way it's

(01:15:53):
couched here in masonry is thateverything is said with
gentleness and respect for theother.
I'm not proselytizing myposition over and above anybody
else's position.
I'm asking for my two minutesto share, just as I'm doing my

(01:16:13):
best to allow you to have yourtwo minutes to share.
Everybody shares together withan open mind and open heart Very
rare.
You're not going to find thatanywhere else out there.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
I'm just telling you no, it's difficult to find.
Yeah, yeah everybody's.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
you know, it's the Twitter mentality everywhere you
go anymore, unless you 100%.
We talk about this all the time.
But I'm going to say it againIf you don't 100% agree with
everything I say, then not onlywe're not friends, but we're
enemies and I'm going to do whatI can to harm you, stop you and
or, you know, knock you offyour mark, and it's just.

(01:16:48):
I'm over it.
I am so over that entire ideain my life.
I don't accept it and I don'tparticipate in it in any way.
If you have something to say tome and it's presented with
gentleness and respect, with aview of education and
companionship, then I don't carewhat you say, I don't care what

(01:17:10):
you believe.
Bring it.
Let's sit down and talk, let'senrich our lives.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
you know through human contact.
It takes practice, you're notgoing to be perfect at it out of
the gate.
Sure, you're like, we're humans, right, so we react chemically.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Yeah, we can.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
You have very little control sometimes over your
physical reaction to things thatyou don't like, and also your
own history and your upbringingand the people and the
circumstances.
So you have to work at the ideaof tolerance and not everything
has to be said the way thatyou're thinking it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
It takes practice and the more you do it, the better
you get at it.
We've had you like are verygood at some point, once the
conversation's loosened up andeverybody seems to be
contributing, of taking it offthe message and saying current
events, what do you got?
And letting somebody throwsomething out there.
We had one time where it waslike amazing, beautiful, what

(01:18:07):
happened, and then another timewhere it escalated quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
And we kind of backed off, because it didn't seem,
didn't feel like it was going tobe the right environment to
have that particularconversation.

Speaker 1 (01:18:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
And you have to become good at that of knowing
when it's okay and seeing whenit maybe it's not okay and
stopping before.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
Right yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
That's another learned thing that you need, we
all need to do, is Mason's is.
We want to have difficultconversations, but there are
certain people that can't do it,and you have to recognize when
you're talking to one of thosepeople and not go there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Yeah, that's right, there are risks in having the
conversation, but the rewardsfar outweigh it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Yeah, it's worth it If you do it right we're Mason's
man.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
Come on, we should be able to have conversations
about anything without offendingeach other or getting mad, and
being able to learn from eachother and grow and move on, and
that's that's unique to this, tothis craft, and I want the
world to experience it.
Well, brother, another excitingand another exciting episode.

(01:19:10):
I'm just really blessed to dothis all the time with you.
Yeah, me too.
If you made it to the end again, you're our hero.
We're really grateful thatyou're here with us and send us
your emails.
And please, fred or Chris at onthe on the level with Fred and
Chris, yes, yes, and as themusic comes on, that's our cue

(01:19:34):
to get out of here.
And I just again, chris, thanksso much for everything that
that you've done and everythingthat you do, and we'll see y'all
next time.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
Thank you.