The Continuing Journey of A Mason (Matt Stone)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
you've reached the internet's home for all things
masonry.
Join on the level podcast as weplumb the depths of our ancient
craft and try to unlock themysteries, dispel the fallacies
and utilize the teachings offreemasonry to unlock the
greatness within each of us.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I have you now let's go.
We are back, my brother, we areback.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Are brother.
We are back.
Are you ready to unlock thegreatness within each?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
of us, greatness is a question mark at this point.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Wow, I mean, we have not been on the air for some
time.
I got butterflies when I heardthe intro.
I was like whoa, this is cool,I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, my heart started to race a little bit and
I was like I have not heardthis in so long, like because I
went back and watched all of ourepisodes and it's just really.
I miss it, chris, I miss it Ido too.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I wonder if anyone else out there misses it.
Let's see, this is our, this isour comeback tour um.
We haven't posted any newcontent since sometime last year
we have to go back and checkthat.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
What was our last episode we had winding stairs on
.
I remember that one.
We had mikey on before thattalked about the aliens.
That was fun yeah, well, yeah,that was the aliens, and then
the ghosts yep, yep, that wasthe same.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Go back and listen, guys, especially now we got new
jersey drones hey, yeah, withallegedly gravitical propulsion,
whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Whatever that is.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Anti-gravity.
Is that what it is?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Man.
So, chris, how have you beenbuddy?
I mean, you and I have talkedoffline but officially.
How was your Christmas?
How was your New Year?
How are things, man?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Things are good for me.
Business is keeping me going.
I'm still pretty involved withthe Scottish Rite in Florida.
I sit on a board and we managea building for the Scottish Rite
there, so I interface.
My Masonic stuff is a lot ofadministrative stuff these days,
which you know.
I got to do an installation atmy lodge, which was exciting.

(02:22):
Sorry, you couldn't make it.
I think you had a degree orsomething going on that night
yeah, yep but we had a good timeand yeah, just life's keeping
me busy.
Wife is good, family's good.
Uh, I cannot complain how aboutyou?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
good, but would anybody really care?

Speaker 1 (02:39):
you know, we all want to think it's all about us, but
no, nobody would care.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I care, chris, I care .

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Thank you.
No, everything's good, man.
As you know, I'm going throughsome hormone treatments because
we're trying to have a baby, soI'm more a woman than a man
these days.
Nice, I'm holding it, trying togrow up.
Look, no chest hair, it's allgoing away.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to Christina
Burns.
My daughter's name ironicallyNice.
How are you man?
What have you been?

Speaker 1 (03:12):
up to.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I'm great.
So New Year's Christmas was all.
So Christmas was great.
You know, we got mythree-year-old daughter a purple
and pink bike for Christmas.
Because Santa doesn't give herthe good stuff, mom and dad give
her the good stuff.
So yeah, so Santa gave like a.
Paul Patrol gift.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Always really ticked me off that my wife always made
the good gifts go to Santa.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, no, we don't play that in my house.
No, mom and dad do the goodstuff.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Xbox.
Why would Santa give him an?

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Xbox.
But it's funny, though, becauseshe's's three.
She weighs a whopping 27 pounds, so she's not even big enough
like she will like.
If you're watching this onvideo, this is great, so let's
she'll like stand up like stompon the on the pedal to try to
get the bike to move.
And she can't get the bike tomove, dang.
So it's like all right, baby,you're gonna have to grow into
this one.
I'm sorry, sorry.
She's three, yeah three.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Well, that's young.
That's young for bike ridingright.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Like no right.
The problem is she's very smartand I don't say this because
she's my kid, I'm saying thisobjectively.
So before she ever went intoschool she knew her ABCs, it's
good, she got some things fromher mother.
Right, I mean currently she cancount to 30 without missing a
beat.
We're teaching her how to spelllike little three-letter words

(04:29):
so she can spell mom, cat anddad.
Nice, so we're still working onthe hand.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
And that's probably the order she loves things in
too.
Yeah, Mom, cat and dad.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
So no, but she's remarkably articulate and she's
a problem solver and she's alsovery logical, which pisses me
off.
Why does that piss you off?

Speaker 1 (04:50):
You're pretty logical dude.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'm very logical, but it's one of those things where
it's like, if you don't do whatI asked you to do, I'm going to
Sparta kick you into next week.
You know the way our boomerparents threatened us.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
I don't know if I should be offended or not.
I have employees that literallycall everybody boomers and I'm
like, wait, I'm feel like I'mdangerously close to being a
boomer myself no, you're, you'regen x okay, okay, that's the
archetype.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Pretty well, okay.
Okay, where's the boomer cutoff.
At the 64, I say with a person.
Oh yeah, I'm solidly out ofthat group but uh, but either
way, like I, she problem solves.
And so I'll be like hey, brooke, we can't do this because of X
reason.
She'll sit there and thinkabout it.
She goes, yeah, but we couldjust do this and it'll work.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I'm like you're right , but I said no, she's exposing
the inadequacies of yourparenting skills.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Which is great.
I mean, it's going to be greatbecause as she grows up and goes
into the world, I want her tobe able to logic her way out of
a problem.
I also want her to logic herway through conversations with
you know other kids, otheradults, everybody, but right now
, as my child, it's like kidyeah, just do what I asked you

(06:03):
to do, please.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, it's awesome to see kids developing their own
personalities and stuff, isn'tit?
It's kind of like becomingtheir own person, and it's
something you can really beproud of.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
We were very adamant with all family we were like,
and anybody who spent timearound us.
It was do not baby, talk my kid.
Whatever you do, don't baby,because then they're learning a
whole nother language.
So we taught Brooke how tospeak from an early age, and it
started whenever she was muchyounger of hey, just point at
what you want, like just pointat it.

(06:35):
And she did well with that, andthat was one or younger maybe.
She did great with that,learned how to walk around one.
But I didn't realize, as wewere teaching her how to speak,
that I would also hear the innerworkings of a three-year-old
brain.
I had no clue and so it's justokay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, what a lovely rabbit hole to go down.
Three-year-old.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
As of right now, around our house, because my
child has an unhealthy obsessionwith Spider-Man.
Right now.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Ooh, I like that.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
She is Spider-Man, my wife is Ghostie, which is the,
I think, Gwen Stacy Spider-Man.
The white girl in the whiteoutfit.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
And I'm the Green Goblin, so I'm always the Green
Goblin.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh, you're the bad guy.
Mm-hmm Dang, I'm okay with ittoo.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I lean into it, so it's like I'm doing my best.
Impersonation of William Dafoe.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh man, I'm leaning into it.
What a great actor.
I just saw him in two differentmovies.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Man, he's good, he is phenomenal and I don't know how
many packs of Marlboro Reds hesmoked to get that voice, but I
want it.
It's like he was born to playthe goblin, like that part was
amazing.
He did another role and it wasa I mean a patently terrible
movie, but he did phenomenal init and it's called death note.
Have you ever heard of it?

Speaker 1 (07:54):
so my daughter read the graphic novel, I believe,
and she told me all about it.
I didn't know that they made amovie about it actually made a
movie.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
I think it's on netflix and william defoe plays
ryuk, who's's essentially the.
He's not the villain, but he'slike the spirit or entity that
aids the main character.
Not giving anything away, butanyway, william Dafoe, the first
time he spoke as Ryuk I waslike, oh, thank you, it just
filled my soul.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
And then I saw him in the Spider-man movie with tom
holland and I'm like yes, didyou actually read the graphic
novel or did you come coldturkey into that movie?

Speaker 2 (08:30):
no, I watched the anime.
Uh, I'm an anime nerd, okay, um.
So I watched the anime, theoriginal anime, and the original
anime was so, so good, becauseyou've got, um, uh, what is his
name?
Light, I think is.
The is the main character'sname and then you got his
counterpart, which works for thepolice department.
They're playing this game ofcat and mouse and it is so darn

(08:53):
good.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I'm going to have to go watch it now.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
It's great, especially the last couple.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Skip the movie, but see the animated.
Yes, right, okay, just to beclear, the movie sucks.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, the movie was patently terrible.
It's like they took a whole lotof creative liberties.
I'm like just stick to thesource material, that's all you
have to do.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Right, everybody wants to make something their
own.
It's like we're only watchingit because it's what we want it
to be.
We don't want to see yourversion of it, damn it.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
I mean sure, if you're remaking it for the fifth
time like, yeah, okay, let'smake Batman have a different
background, I'm cool with that.
Like I've seen it 80 times, Iget it.
But a movie that's never comeout, don't take creative
liberties, man, Just make thesource material.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, and they did that as well with Assassin's
Creed, so that's another gameI'm huge into, and if you're a
Mason, you want to playAssassin's Creed Because it goes
on there's a war between theassassins and the Templars.
Yep, yes, yeah.
But if you look at the game,which?

Speaker 1 (09:52):
is historically accurate.
From what I understand, thereactually was a bit of a thing
between assassins and Templars.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
I kind of so.
I don't know about actualassassins, but whenever I read
Born in Blood, my mindset onAssassin's Creed shifted a
little bit, and so it was morelike the Assassins were more
like the Masons and the KnightsTemplars in the 1300s and the
Templars were more like theHospitallers and the Catholic

(10:23):
Church.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's where my mindset started to shift a
little bit.
But I'm going to go back andplay them all again because I
have no life, and kind of see ifthat matches up.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Well, I think that we should definitely do an episode
on Born in Blood.
It's a book I personally havebrought in many, many, many
people into the fraternity andit takes a while when you
petition lodge till you get yourinternet apprentice degree and
everybody's really excited andso divert.
To divert them from goingonline and doing too much
research.
Yeah, because I tell themplease don't do that, not for me

(10:58):
, but for you, don't do it.
Um, read this book instead.
I think you'll find it reallyinteresting.
I always refer freemasonry fordummies because I think that's
about the best primer you'regoing to give anybody about what
freemasonry actually is.
Yeah, and born in blood,because it's just amazing.
What a great book andhistorically accurate I have

(11:19):
freemasonry for dummies.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I don't think I've ever opened the book, but it's
in my library, you knoweverything in it, so there's no
reason for you to do it.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
But for someone that's interested and hasn't
joined yet, it's definitely.
It scratches that itch you haveabout like, oh, I want to know
everything.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, I also have morals and dogma, and I started
to read morals and dogma becauseI haven't been through the
Scottish right.
I'm like I have no flippingclue what's going on right now.
It's written in Old English soit's a little difficult to
swallow.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
That is basically about all of the degrees in the
Scottish Rite, and the ScottishRite degrees cover every bit of
recorded human history in myopinion.
So it's going to be dense.
Like you said, it's Old English, these are thinking men and you
know they don't know how to dopunctuation.
So right, we'll be reading onesentence for two pages like wait

(12:13):
, where's, where's?

Speaker 2 (12:14):
the end of this.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's like there's gonna be a turnoff somewhere I
need the uh, I need the pop-upversion of this book.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
I'd rather look at pictures can you give me like
the picture, like the pictureBible, like what I have for my
kid?
It's like with a pop-up andlike Noah's Ark flips up.
Oh really, Can you give me that?
But like morals and dogma.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
That would.
Hey, I think you're ontosomething there.
We might want to get busy onthat and doctoring our children.
I for children so enough ofthat, chris.
We need to get serious.
People want to hear aboutfreemasonry.

(12:53):
All right, not about us, it'snot about us.
Well, um, you know, I thinkit's it's fair for us to talk
about why we haven't beenposting content.
I'm under masonic charges.
Uh, you know, our grandmasterput a ruined decision out about
posting on social media and thenhe put me under charges for
some stuff that I said prior tohis ruling and decisions.
So that's going to go to trialin March, march 1st.

(13:14):
Okay.
So you know, because of that, Ithink we both decided, you know
what let's not like, becauseanything I said was not meant to
hurt anybody or be derogatory.
It was 100, just something thatpeople say online.
Um, and you know, I didn't wantto put you or myself in a

(13:34):
position because we talk a lotabout freemasonry what if we
said something wrong thatsomeone could construe or view
in a a different light than theway we meant it?
So better safe than sorry wasthe thinking there.
For a while On my part I don'tknow about yourself we literally
recorded content that we didn'trelease for fear that it could
have been taken wrong.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
And they were such fun episodes.
I'm not going to say they weregood, but they were fun.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
What you remember of them right.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
So for those who aren't aware, which, like, let's
face it, like me, you and ourwives are probably the only ones
that know we did our first OTLafter dark, oh yeah, where I got
a little too far into the sauce.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
I mean, there was no keeping it on track, I was
really trying.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
You gave it an honest effort.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Johnny walker had other plans it was great
actually, and we should releasethat at some point in the future
.
How?

Speaker 2 (14:29):
about we record it again and I don't get three
glasses deep while we'rerecording this love it, love it.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
I mean we'll definitely record it again.
We have so much content that wehaven't released.
I mean, we have interviews, wehave stuff that we've done.
Um, we haven't been able topublish it, like, like I just
said, out of, uh, an abundanceof caution more than anything
else.
But I think, uh, you and I weretalking and we were like you
know what?
I missed the show, let's do theshow, like damn everything else

(14:57):
.
Like we'll be careful, ascareful as you and I can be,
which isn't very careful, uh,because we're honest people and
you get real when you see us andwhen you speak with us.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well, especially whenever you have two guys that
are on uh uh external hormonesyeah, I mean, you're on yours,
I'm on TRT.
I mean anything can happen atthis point.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Anything can happen.
We might get married, but canhappen.
We might get married by theminute this happens, ready to go
, but that's you know, just foreveryone to be aware.
That is why and you know Ithink I'm past it, I don't know
about you I'm aware that peopleare already going to trial.
Multiple people have had theirtrials and they've been
suspended.
I fully expect to be suspendedbecause you know who brought the

(15:41):
charges against me and pasthistory of what they've done
with other people.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
I had to testify in a trial, yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Here.
I am a new-in Mason.
I've only been a Mason for likewhat 14 months and I've already
been through a charter pool anda trial.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's what I want to get into.
I want to talk about you.
So we started our journeytogether on this podcast, with
you talking about your journeyin freemasonry.
You were a fellow craft in thebeginning.
I don't know if you rememberthe first I didn't get you
before but cooney introduced me.
I think my lodge did yourdegree for you.

(16:19):
I think it was your mastermason degree, you're in.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
So, yeah, you, you guys sent up 14, 47, sent up, I
think, four brothers to help outin the master Mason degree.
Um, cause I, as a fellow craft,you know the worst will.
Master comes up to me and he'slike dude, I can't find enough
people for your master Masondegree.
And I was like I'll make somecalls Like yeah, and yeah, and
you just pulled in the team.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
We left off, talking about your Masonic career, what
it's like to be a Mason.
This podcast was alwaysintended to be heard not just by
Masons, but people that mightbe interested about Freemasonry
and are doing some research.
We wanted to provide contentfor them to answer questions
they might have in their mind.
And I think when you and Ifirst spoke our very first

(17:06):
conversation me I listen, I'mnot, I'm not even a master mason
yet, and I wanted feedback fromyou, honest feedback, and you
gave it.
You said I'd really like tohear somebody's journey because
you weren't a mason yet.
So you were obviously veryinterested in that content.
Yeah, what am I getting into?
So here we are.
Um, when we left off, you werethe junior deacon of your lodge
at Turkey Creek.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Oh Turkey Creek 248.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yes, the lodge formerly known as Turkey Creek
248.
Now you were junior deacon atTurkey Creek.
What the heck happened.
So, through a series ofimportant events, you've got to
give us the Cliff Notes version,obviously because we don't want
to get too deep into the weedson it the cliff notes version is
that turkey creek 248 got itscharter pulled um.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
So, and you know, there's.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
What I'm hearing is they had a lodge before you
became a member and then youbecame a member and now that
isn't a lodge anymore.
I'm not saying that you're thereason, but there's definitely
some causes, you know,interesting facts there I'm
feeling it, to be honest withyou.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Um so no, so you know I I worked over at turkey creek
.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
I put in a lot of work, a lot of effort over at
turkey oh, I know you did andand it wasn't just me, you know,
there were some other brotherswho helped out as well, um, but
I mean, you're building a niceteam, nice team of people that
were ready to, you know, improvethings, move things forward
over there.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
We had at the at the October is whenever we got our
charter pulled.
We had at that point we wouldneed one year of a past master
and then we would have eightyears of all fresh masters.
So that's, that's where it leftoff and it just it wasn't able
to survive the gauntlet, as itwere.
So, okay, no use crying overspilled milk.

(18:47):
I will say I think it was earlylast year, about a year ago, I
went and visited for the firsttime.
I went and visited LakelandLodge 91.
And I went over to LakelandLodge and, man, the difference
in masonry between districtsblew my mind.

(19:08):
I mean it was night and daydifference.
So, for those curious, I was amember of a lodge here in
District 20, and I believeLakeland is in District 21, if I
remember right.
So I ended up going over toLakeland.
I visited them a couple oftimes.
Their master at the time, uh,last year, was a, um, uh, a guy

(19:29):
from bosnia, uh, jasmine gerbic.
Gerbic gerbic.
Jasmine is about six feet tall,I'd say about 240, 250 of just
solid, you know beard down tohere the dude's got fire in his
blood.
I love him.
What Jasmine had done withLakeland is, if I'm hearing it

(19:54):
right, lakeland was in a similarposition to what Turkey Creek
was in, but Jasmine yanked thatthing up by the neck and turned
it around.
They were doing multiple lodgevisits a year.
All their degree work.
They do in-house everything.
He had a solid line to where,all the way down to the senior
deacon, everybody was in thesame mindset.

(20:14):
So I was like Jasmine I'mthinking about doing a plural
over at your lodge, you know,because I really like Lakeland.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
This is when you were still at Turkey Creek.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, yeah and so, and even still midway through
the year at Turkey Creek I thinkit was, oh gosh June, I think
it was I got a battlefieldpromotion where I got swapped
with the senior deacon and Ithen became senior deacon.
Even on the Grand Lodge websiteI was acknowledged as senior
deacon Best chair in the officerline.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Senior deacon.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Honestly, I really enjoyed it.
Line senior deacon he taught mehow to do balloting because I

(21:09):
had messed up balloting at onepoint, because I'd never done it
before.
He taught me DDGM reception.
I mean and even still likewhenever I saw him at the trial,
I walked over, shook his hand,sat there and talked to him for
an hour and I said hey, man, Ijust want to thank you because
now we're doing training over atLakeland and I'm taking some of
the stuff that you taught meand taking it over there to
those guys and some of the stuffthey do know, some of the stuff

(21:30):
they don't know.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Right, that's the thing People outside of
Freemasonry just assume.
We all are born knowing how todo all the secret ritual stuff.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Oh Lord no.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
But we're not.
We have to be taught and whathappens is you're taught by the
people in the lodge you go togenerally.
And those people, it becomessuspect how they learned it.
They might have learned it fromsomebody else that was in their
lodge and that guy learned itfrom somebody else that was in
their lodge and, uh, it's not anunbroken chain of the actual

(22:06):
work as recorded and documentedright versus what people do in
lodges.
I learned that early on, um,because, like you, I was doing
degree.
I was made a fellow craft andthe next day I was in a fellow
craft to grade a different lot.
And so I'm standing in theirlodge and they're teaching me
how to do floor work as asteward, and the way they turn

(22:28):
and sit in their chairs iscompletely different than the
way it was in my lodge, and so Ilearned early on.
Anytime you go to a differentlodge to do work, you should
always ask them is this how youdo it, or watch how I do it?
And make sure you guys are okaywith this, because they may not
follow the work as it'ssupposed to be done.
They might have their ownlocalized way to do it and

(22:49):
people get a little offended ifyou don't do it their way, which
is one of the things thatalways boggled my mind about the
fraternity, because there'sonly one right way, but I think
there's about 80 different waysto do the ritual.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
So I'm going to kick a hornet's nest real quick for
all of our listeners and I wantto hear everybody's opinion on
this Everyone.
So I learned how to be seniordeacon, and flag ceremony is
open to the public right, so I'mnot violating anything right
now.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
So when Dave taught me how to do the flag ceremony,
it's left arm at 90 degrees,holding the staff hand on the
bottom the pole slightly leaningforward, and the flag has to be
free and aloft.
So the work specifically says45 degree angle right.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Here's the thing, though.
That's not flag conduct, right?
We've got two military guys onour line, and so I asked our our
di over in district 21, or aformer di, uh, right, honorable,
um.
I said, hey, I have a questionabout the flag.
And he goes don't you dare?
And I'm like, I'm like it'sjust a question, I just simple

(23:55):
question.
Come on, man.
And so the way our militaryguys do it in our lodge and
actually I saw them doing downin 14 too is they hold the flag
straight up and down.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
And because that's the way you're supposed to carry
the flag.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Well, they carry it at a 45, but when people are
actually giving the Pledge ofAllegiance, they hold it
straight up.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
So how we do it and this goes to the nuance that you
talked about is our militaryguys over at Lakeland 91, they
refuse to let the flag bow toanybody.
It is straight up and down.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Oh okay, that's clearly not correct according to
Florida work.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Right, but what supersedes what?
Is it military flag, code ofconduct, or is it Masonic floor
work?

Speaker 1 (24:45):
You're asking the wrong guy because I tend to
follow civil law and theconstitutional law, but there's
Masonic law, which is a littledifferent Right, apparently,
depending on who's in charge.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Well, luckily our DI's over there, they don't have
a problem with it.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, and that's the thing.
Locally generally, even, likeyou said, in a district, they
kind of all agree on yeah, weall like it this way better.
You know that's how they do it.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
So, but the only thing our senior deacon does and
, Armando, I love you to deaththe only thing our senior deacon
does is this was kind of and Ithink we're getting together for
a practice tomorrow night, soI'll probably bring it up
tomorrow night is when he turns.
Dave made a very particularpoint that always stuck in my
head when you turn as a seniordeacon, you, when you turn as a

(25:32):
senior deacon, you never turnaway from the worshipful master,
you always turn towards theworshipful master.
So and I've seen Armando do it acouple of times during the flag
ceremony where, like, he turnsthe opposite direction and I'm
just like I don't know what theright answer is there- I'm sure
the answer to that is in thebook, because that kind of floor
work is pretty clearlyexplained.
Yeah.
In the actual floor work bookbut I will say like to his

(25:55):
credit like armando got thrownin as senior deacon and he is
killing it as senior deacon likeyou.
Show him once he's got it that'sawesome I, I love that dude to
death man and he's, um, he'scuban, uh, and I say that
because his personality type ishilarious whenever we're like,
oh know, we have a thought ofgoing and getting X thing for
the lodge.
Okay, uh, so when are we goingto do it?

(26:16):
We're going to do it next week.
Okay, what are you doing rightnow?
Can we do it right now?
Come on Like let's get the.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
I love that.
Yeah, dude, Pedal to the metal.
I love.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
That's what we need.
So back to the point of youknow, we, we, I'm at Turkey
Creek, I get the battlefieldpromotion, the senior Deacon, we
have a DDGM reception, we havea grandmaster reception.
I had to learn a little bit onthe grandmaster reception, cause
I didn't realize if the grandMarshall was there.
It kind of changes the dynamicsa little bit of who escorts the

(26:49):
grand, the grandmaster, to theEast.
So I learned that the hard way.
Um, but uh, but yeah.
So I, I go over to lakeland andthey're they asked me, you know
they're like, hey, why are youwanting to join over at lakeland
?
And I was like, well, I'm kindof homeless, like will you take
in a poor and wandering soul?

Speaker 1 (27:08):
So this is after your charter was pulled.
Now I'm curious about thatbecause I've never actually
experienced that.
How much notice did you get?
Or do they just pull it and youcan't go back to like, do they
notify it?
Like, how do you know what todo or when to do it?
Like, what is that process like?

Speaker 2 (27:27):
So we had no idea that the grandmaster was going
to be there that night.
We had no clue until he walkedin and he didn't even show up
for dinner.
He just showed up like I think10 or 15 minutes before Lodge
started and had like a wholeentourage of people that came
with him.
So we were like Okay.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
So he came to a stated meeting and left with
your charter, correct?
And that was that.
Yep, no, you couldn't ever getback in the lodge after that day
.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
No, as a matter of fact, I was told by the DD,
who's a great guy.
I mean, he's in a toughsituation.
Yeah, I'm sure, and I lovedebating him.
Oh, it's my favorite thing todebate that guy, you know,
because he doesn't take itpersonal, and neither do I.
It's just like, all right,these are the facts we're
dealing with.
All right, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
And we all know you're a master debater.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yes, I have been ever since the ripe old age of 13.
So, having said that, had totake it there, didn't you, chris
?

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Actually, it's grammatically correct.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
I don't know what you heard when I said it, so either
way, um, yeah, he shows up,he's got everybody with him.
Um, we had no idea that it wasgoing to happen that night and I
think our lodge meeting fromthe time the grandmaster started
until the close of lodge.
I think it was an hour and ahalf, so that was a late night.
Um, I think we were there untillike 11, 11, 30, something like

(28:53):
that.
Um, and whenever they take thescrewdriver and pull the charter
off the wall, man, you can heara pin drop oh, I bet uh, and of
course, me being me, I'msitting there cracking jokes,
you know, left and right.
And so our dd roscoe, he's gotthese like half moon glasses and
he just like one of thosestairs, like you know, like he's

(29:14):
like now it's not the time.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Now's not the time.
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Like my charter's pulled.
Ok, you all put your pants onthe same way I do.
Let's have some fun with this.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
So we have a recorded episode that goes into great
detail about this that we can'trelease, so it's good to get
that out there.
Your lodge charter was pulledand you had some great
information that we had plannedto release about, like, how to
recover your lodge.
You had a checklist of steps,um, and a plan that I think was

(29:48):
meant to be a three-year planthat you turned into like an
eight-year plan or somethingyeah, we had eight to eleven
years years of everythingplanned out and I still have
that.
Yeah, so I think we should stillrelease that, even though it
didn't work.
I don't think it didn't workbecause of your lodge or the
brothers Clearly there was otherstuff going on there, yeah but
I think that's valuableinformation for other people

(30:09):
that might be in a lodge, notjust like whose charter is in
danger, but just a strugglinglodge.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know, that's maybe and I want to be fair
about this.
Um and and I think this is afair thing to say being over at
lakeland and seeing a themindset of masonry over there
and then the mindset of lakeland, I see why the grandmaster did
what he did.
I get it, I understand it.
I'm not in total agreement withhow it was done and I have data

(30:39):
points on that, a lot of datapoints on that.
I have a five-page letter ofrebuttal with dates, quotes,
everything.
So I have a five-page letter ofrebuttal ready to go to
jurisprudence.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Well, don't do anything with that for the next
four months, please.
Yeah, I was going to say let's,I like loving you around.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
After May shall we?

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Only one of us can be suspended.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
So either way, again, I see why he did it.
I love the people over atTurkey Creek.
I really do.
I still keep in contact with alot of them.
Matter of fact, I yeah, Iactually met up with one the
other day.
We went and got a drink.
You know just.
You know, that was just what,what?

Speaker 1 (31:17):
That was going to be one of my questions, like, do
you, do you guys ever gettogether, or do you just kind of
say, oh, that's in my past nowand look, look to the future.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Not as a lodge, we don't get together.
But you know I still hang outwith them individually and, as a
matter of fact, four of thebrothers over at Turkey Creek
are now aside from me.
Four of the brothers are comingover to Lakeland as well.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Okay, Okay, yeah.
Did the other brothers go tojust other lodges closer to them
, or are they like out?

Speaker 2 (31:43):
They went to where they knew the most people.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
So a couple of the guys went down to DeSoto, which
is down in Riverview.
Some of the guys went to AWWindhorse, tampa 240 picked up a
couple, dade City picked up ahandful.
So they just went to where theyknew people.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
What an interesting start to your Masonic career.
I know you started as a juniordeacon, you moved up to senior
deacon, your charter's pulled.
Now you're at a new lodgearound a new group of people,
and what happens?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
So I was invited to a lodge officer's meeting and
this was, I think, the firsttelltale sign that I had made a
good choice with Lakeland.
I go to a lodge officer'smeeting and I don't know how it
is at 147 or anywhere else inthe state, but when we had a
lodge officer's meeting atTurkey Creek, you struggled just
to get the officers to show up.
Yeah, that was a true statement.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
We had a lodge officers meeting at Lakeland 91
and not only did the entire lineshow up, but like five
additional people showed up.
Wow, it was insane.
We had like almost 15 peoplesitting in the cafeteria saying
what are we doing for 2025?

Speaker 1 (32:53):
So I saw that that was an issue for years.
Officers don't show up to theofficers meeting, yeah, and they
just get a pass.
So when I had an opportunity tostart holding officers meeting
as the master, I took.
You know, I own a business.
I take copious notes ofeverything I do because I have a
horrible memory.
So I took copious notes ofevery meeting and sent it to

(33:16):
everybody.
The whole lodge saw whoattended our officer's meeting
and who did not attend ourofficer's meeting.
How long do you think it tookbefore everybody was there
attending the officer's meeting?

Speaker 2 (33:26):
I'm sure they were at the next one.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, next one.
And then you get the visitors.
You get the people.
That are people that are likeoh wow, there's some cool stuff
going on.
Maybe I should show up becauseanyone can give their opinion on
something and, you know, maybetake a project or make
suggestions, so that kind ofmomentum starts to build.
I think that momentum solves alot of problems in lodges.
So once you get that going, um,things get really well and it

(33:51):
sounds like Lakeland is in abetter place than Turkey Creek
was on the momentum side.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Oh dude, it is insane , the night and day difference.
So they were going to have.
They had a guy who wanted to bethe junior deacon.
He was a senior steward theyear before and he was supposed
to have been junior deacon thatyear.
So he ends up having a babymove, career change, life gets
in the way, I get it, Iunderstand it.
And so he's like hey, by theway, I'm really excited to move

(34:16):
up to senior deacon.
And they're like you've notshown up for junior deacon, much
less senior deacon.
So you know, they encouragedhim and they were like hey, if
you, if you come back I thinkthis is late last year they're

(34:37):
like, hey, if you come back,then all right, you're, you're
going through the senior deacon.
And I told them I was like guys, look, I've got my mlt's done.
I've got master mason one, two,three done.
I've already started lodgeofficer training course.
Um, you know.
So if you need me, I'm here,but don't think I'm chasing
chairs, I'm not I.
I just realized that it's kindof difficult to get people to
show up yeah you know.
So if you need me, I'm here.
And then they ended upinstalling me as junior deacon
this year, so now I'm the juniordeacon at Lakeland.
Back to junior deacon.
Back to junior deacon andjunior deacon's fun.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
It can be fun there's .
You know, you're over therepretty far away from everybody,
and you got one person that youcan banter with and most people
won't hear you no, we've got twotwo because our our worshipful
master.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Last year, jasmine came back as our marshal and he
has been at every meeting as ourmarshal that's.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
That's rare.
I don't often see marshallshowing up to the meetings.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah that's great.
So we're talking about momentum.
That's one thing jasmine said.
He and I were at a grotto eventand we sat down, ate, had a
drink and he was like look, yougot to understand.
Everybody in our line over atLakeland, they all have the same
mindset.
You and I do.
Protect the Westgate at allcosts, right, protect the

(35:45):
Westgate, push this lodgeforward, push it forward, push
the bounds, push all of it.
But we need to be an activelodge and we've got to grow this
lodge because at the end of theday, it's not our lodge, it's
the next generation's lodge.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Right.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
And we have to do that.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
For them.
Yeah, and that's where you wereat.
At the other lodge you clearlyhave a generation before.
You didn't care or weren'teffective at.
You know the things they weretrying to do because you could
see, and a lot of lodges arelike that People come into it
and it's run down.
There's just a general sensethat no one cares anymore.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
And.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I didn't feel that over at Lakeland and now even as
a as junior deacon, it'senergizing right.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Just to walk into a building with that kind of
energy in it.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
It is so.
I mean we're, we're puttingtogether like a proposal right
now, where but we're going to?
And here's the frustratingthing is, our meetings are
always packed Like when.
I say packed, I'm talking likethe agenda is packed.
So it's like we're not justgoing in going over minutes.
All right, do you have anythingelse to bring Right?
You know we're not doing that.
It is no.
Here's what we're doing.

(36:53):
We've got this practice, we'vegot this degree.
We've got this fundraiser,we've got.
You know, who are we giving ourmoney to for this thing?
I mean it's, it is such anactive lodge.
Matter of fact, yesterday wehad to travel in Gavel for
almost a year for that districtand so Travelers Lodge came in
and got it a couple of meetingsago.

(37:14):
So it's like, alright, you guysgot it.
Yeah, cool.
So we send them off with theTraveler's Gavel or the
Traveling Gavel Then.
And Traveler's Lodge is out inLake Alfred, so it's like
probably 20-30 minutes from ourlodge.
They meet on Saturday morningsat 8 am.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
You want to know what I didn't want to do.
It's a daylight lodge.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
What's that?

Speaker 1 (37:37):
It's a daylight lodge .

Speaker 2 (37:38):
It's a daylight lodge .

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
You want to know what I didn't want to do.
Saturday morning at 10 am or 8am, get up and drive all the way
to Lake Alfred, which is a45-minute drive for me, in order
to get the traveling gavel.
But that's what we did.
So we get in there.
We sit through their meeting.
Uh, worshipful Ryan, uh, ryanGriner, love that guy.
Um, ryan stands up and he goeshey, uh want to know how partial

(38:02):
you are to that traveling gavel.
Everybody starts laughing.
Why is everybody laughing?
They?

Speaker 1 (38:13):
share a building with Hain City Lodge.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
And Hain City took the gavel.
Even though it sits in thatroom, it's Hain City's gavel.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
So there was literally no reason for you to
be there.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
And Hain City meets on the exact same nights that we
meet.
So we were like, oh, talk abouta Masonic bait and switch man,
that was good.
Wow, like oh, talk about aMasonic bait and switch man.
That was good, wow.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
So you got to meet some new brothers, you got to
see a new lodge.
You know that's fun, right?

Speaker 2 (38:41):
It is.
It is so fun and I love whereLakeland is headed.
You know we're talking aboutupdating the lights, updating
the library and, by the way,Lakeland Lodge is not a small
lodge.
It's a 9,000 square footbuilding.
It is not a tiny lodge.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Wow, that's pretty big, the whole building's 9,000
square feet.
Is it two stories or one One?

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Okay, yeah, it has an eastern star that meets in
there.
The back rooms aren't beingused right now, except for
storage for other lodges thathad closed down over the years.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
I aren't being used right now, except for like
storage for other lodges thathad that had closed down over
the years.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
I, I see a game room in your future.
There's a pool table back there, yeah, yeah.
So, uh, you know, we, we have a, we have an offer.
Somebody's trying to buy ourlodge because they're trying to
buy the entire block.
Yeah, um, you know, becauseit's right in downtown lakeland,
I mean, it's prime real estate.
So those conversations arehappening and I tell you what
it's being part of a line andour entire line.
By the way, the oldest personis 52 years old.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
That's the oldest person and he looks like a
25-year-old.
Neff, I'm sorry but you do, buthe's 52.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
That's a compliment to a 52-year-old.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Don't say sorry, dude , I I'm telling you, man, like
you know, the hispanic genes arestrong like his.
His name's nef and uh, and nefis just like one of the most
laid back, chilled out, nicestguys.
He's our junior warden rightnow makes phenomenal dinners for
us.
I mean, like I think last timewe had homemade fried chicken
and mashed potatoes oh, yes,please yeah, no more green beans

(40:12):
at this lodge, so uh you'rejunior deacon, you're.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
You're now.
I mean you were installed acouple about a month ago, right?

Speaker 2 (40:20):
yeah, yeah, right out a month ago, because I think
our, I think our installationwas the fourth.
So, yeah, right out a month.
So how long have you been amason now?

Speaker 1 (40:28):
14 months.
14 months you've been anofficer in two lodges.
You've been present at acharter poll.
You were in a masonic trial Iwas in a trial.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
I was what the heck man.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
14 months, it was like forever in your masonic
career.
So I don't know if you.
I'll preface the question bysaying be aware that, um, when a
grandmaster doesn't likesomething, you say he can
suspend you from freemasonry.
So, that being said, why wereyou part of, why were you part

(41:01):
of this masonic tribe?

Speaker 2 (41:02):
so so, basically what it boils down to is I'm a york
right mason.
I'm a grotto member, I've beena part of two lodges.
Now I'm trying to speed run.
Masonry Is what I'm trying todo.
I should have waited until youtook your drink before I said
that.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
It came out my nose, it tastes even better.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
So yeah, the trial, the trial Was interesting.
I don't know how Masonic trialsgo.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
You're not the main star of this right.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
No, no, no, I was the witness.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
You were a witness for the person that was on trial
, or you were a witness againstthe person.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
I ended up testifying for both sides.
Oh, you flip-flopped.
I didn't flip-flop, I told thetruth, okay okay.
So, as I was telling the truthit was I was set to testify for
the prosecution and then for theguy being prosecuted.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
He was like, hey, I'm also calling him as a witness
for me, and they were like okayso do you get called in two
separate times, or did they justkind of knock it all out while
you're in there?

Speaker 2 (42:02):
no, they did it all in one batch, so he got his
questions out of the way andthen, uh, the chairman, uh, and
the the board ended up askingquestions.
But at the end of the day, withthat trial, that trial was
weird.
Here's what I said in the trialand this is the honest truth.
I mean and I don't think thisis a controversial point at all,
for the situation that wasinvolved, a situation happened

(42:26):
between them two and that's whatsparked the charges.
Both of those brothers werefactually correct in what they
said.
What they said was right andaccurate, but they both handled
it very poorly, and that's whathappened.
And so it was just.
You know.
Everybody knows how it is inLodge every now and then, where
it's like all right, tempersstart to flare, it's.

(42:46):
You know, we're going over avery difficult topic and so
something happens there's adisagreement, and then boom, and
so both of them were factuallycorrect in what they said, but
both handled it poorly I have noidea who was the person being
prosecuted and who was theperson that brought the charges.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
However, you just told me there was a past master
and a district deputy of ourgrandmaster, so I can assume
already that if thegrandmaster's district deputy
was involved, he was not theperson probably on trial.
No, and it probably didn't gowell for the person that was on

(43:28):
trial.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Well, I mean he only got a six month suspension.
Ok, I mean, I've heard somepeople say that it's justified.
I've heard some people say thathe should have just got a
reprimand, like a verbalreprimand.
I'm not in any sort of positionto make any decision about that
because I'm still a new Mason.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
I still care, 14 months in.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
It's like sink or swim, Matt, here you go.
I'm not in a position to saywhat was justified, what was not
justified.
I just went in there, told thetruth, called it down the middle
.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
What I did hear you say is that both people seem
like maybe they could havehandled it better, but only one
is now suspended.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
So, yes, so here's the thing, and I would encourage
all of our brothers on this.
So we have a handful of workingtools that we talk about?

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Is it the shotgun or the nine millimeter?

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Oh, that's on my hip, Uh we're talking about the same
working tools right.
Yeah, sure, okay, um, so eitherway, um, and I would encourage
all of our brothers on this whenyou're in lodge or you're even,
you're, you're even talking toa brother, it doesn't matter.
You're supposed to use ahandful of our working tools and
you're supposed to whisper wisecounsel to a brother, and

(44:41):
you're supposed to use thetrowel, and and and all these
things.
And conduct yourself with acertain level of decorum to
respect the lodge Right, youknow not only that decorum, to
respect the lodge right you knownot only that, but respect the
craft, respect we belong toright, and I saw none of those
lessons or tools being used thatnight.
None of them.
And and that was kind of thebig takeaway from that yeah,

(45:02):
it's a generational thing.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
It's probably somebody of a different
generation that doesn't get thejoke.
You know, I've seen thatbecause I I like to make people
laugh too.
Yeah, it's kind of.
For me it's a defense mechanism.
If I'm nervous I just try tomake people laugh.
I've had multiple situationswhere I was an officer in a
lodge, in a tiled meeting thatwas open and I said something

(45:24):
that made people laugh and anold guy didn't hear it or didn't
understand it and got upset.
At the end of the day I alwayssay I'm sorry, that was
inappropriate to me.
I, I made a joke, I apologizedand I shouldn't have done that.
You know so because technicallyI wasn't.
You know you are in the wrong.
We're not supposed to be makinglight and having fun.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Well well, no, I disagree with the making light
and having fun, because I'vebeen a part of some meetings
where it's like it, it washilarious, like, and I even had
one I had one as junior deaconwhere it's like just a couple of
weeks ago where, like my Tylergot locked out of the building.
He went to go put something inhis car and got locked out of
the building.
So it's like oh no door andthere's nobody there.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Oh no.
And so then I get askedafterwards and they were like
you know who and I'm like Idon't know I mean he's hardcore
tiling, not just tiling theinner door, he's tiling from
outside the building making surenobody's getting in.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
That's hardcore checking the eaves man.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
He's checking the eavesdroppers he's pacing around
the building while themeeting's taking place.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
That's great, so I mean, we have those moments
where you know we laugh and cutup.
But no, back to the brotherthat I offended and we've never
had any issues since, by the way.
So either way, it's like youknow he I said something about
flying circus monkeys and hegoes.
Well, I'll leave my derogatorycomments about you to myself.
And I'm like what are you goingto call me the dollar store, mr
Clean?
Like what do you got?

(46:47):
I'm bald for those listening onaudio.
I'm like what do you got?
You're not going to offend me.
And then I lean over to Jasmineafterward, because he went and
sat on the north side.
I lean over to Jasmine and Iwas like, hey, jasmine, did I
actually offend that guy?
And he goes yeah, brother, Ithink you did.
And I was like that was a lowball joke.
So I walked over and I said heybrother, did I offend you by

(47:11):
what?
By my joke, by what I said?
And he's like yes, I, you knowhe's older.
Yes, I was very offended bywhat you said.
I'm like oh well, I apologize,I was in the wrong.
I did not mean to cause offense, it was just a lowball joke.
So I apologize for causingoffense.
I shouldn't have done it.
I was very offended and I wentokay, so I've now apologized.
It is up to you if you want totake that or not.

(47:32):
Right, but I apologize for mywords and I will not make them
again.
And he gets, he shakes my handand he goes all right, it's
water under the bridge.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
It's like there you go, that's good.
Yeah, I mean, we are, uh, in afraternity where no one's
getting paid to be there.
At least, very few people aregetting paid to be there.
In my lodge, the secretaryactually does get paid.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Oh nice.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, so, but most of us aren't getting paid and you
know you're there because youlove it really.
I mean, that's the only reasonmost of us are there.
We believe in the fraternityand its virtues.
So, you know, you got peoplethat are very passionate about
something and they're there ontheir yeah, yeah.
Then the free time away fromtheir family, away from their

(48:13):
work it's really easy to offendpeople in that environment.
Yeah, it is really easy.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Um, and especially with the generational
differences yes, yes, I meanbetween generations.
People get offended on differentlevels.
I mean, if you're dealing withand this is what I've seen if
you're dealing with, um, I'd sayin the lodge, I'd say like 20
of the older brothers that arein the lodge much older brothers
, and they're retired.

(48:38):
You know they're doing thisbecause they love it.
They've been in it for 30, 40,50 years.
You know, like 20 of thebrothers like you breathe the
wrong direction and they getoffended.
But you also have the viceversa and this is why I
encourage everyone to read thatbook, the fourth turning.
You also have the vice versa andthis is why I encourage
everyone to read that book, thefourth turning.
You also get the opposite sideof that, which are they're more

(48:58):
like the gray wardens andthey're more like the guides and
the mentors and stuff like that.
And then you get a gen X likeyourself.
I could throw some prettyraunchy stuff your way and
you're going to throw it rightback at me and we're just going
to laugh it off.
We're like millennial.
Millennials have some of thedarkest senses of humor at all
out of everybody I've met andI'd say the jokes are hilarious.
I love them.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
You aren't a millennial.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
I am a millennial.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Okay, that's what I thought.
Yeah, I mean, there's not a lotof millennials in the lodges.
We need more.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Yeah, and that's what's so nice about our line,
except for one person.
In our line, everybody on thefloor is a millennial, except
for the marshal, the seniorsteward and the junior warden.
But everybody else is amillennial and we're all
business owners.
We're all like I'm not going tosay we're type A mentality, but
we're all like go-getters, yeah, yeah, like pushing everything
forward, like all of us are thatway.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
That's awesome.
You're going to have a greattime going through the chairs in
that lodge.
Yeah, like you'll definitelybutt heads with a couple people,
but those that's all part ofthe learning experience in my,
in my opinion, you're you'resupposed to have those issues,
and your failures will help yoube a better master and help you.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Help you be a master to other people that are just
having their first you knowissue because you've been there
and you know how it is and youknow, we we had that recently
where, uh, worshipful ryan, heis so much further down the road
than me with conflictresolution because he had a past
master jump his crap during ameeting one night and he sat

(50:28):
there and he took it and he'slike thank you for your words
and I'm like I would haveunalived that guy in a heartbeat
, like are you kidding me?
Yeah so, and I told himafterwards.
I walk up after the meeting.
I shook his hand and I said Ihave a lot to learn from you.
He's younger than I am and Ihave a lot to learn from you
because how you just handledthat brother was the right way

(50:49):
to do it.
And I am not there yet.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, yeah, you want to get back at that guy slowly
and painfully over time.
Not right then, on the spot,come on.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Now we're talking.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Now it's a party that's how my generation handles
their business.
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
There's no pettiness like Masonic pettiness.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
My wife says that all the time.
She's like for a bunch of dudes.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
You guys have a lot of drama.
Yeah, yeah, and I told my wifethis earlier today.
You know, before you and Icalled before you and I talked
on the phone.
Uh, I was talking to anotherbrother out of state and I was
like, man, there is no dramalike masonic drama.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
And she's like why I'm like we've now got like four
states wrapped up in thisconversation yeah, but you know,
uh, one thing my wifeunderstands is how, you know, I
don't go to church necessarily.
This is kind of the thing thatfills that part of my spiritual
life.
Okay, you know, freemasonrydoes that for me.
So, the tenets of thefraternity, the history, the

(51:48):
ritual work, that's why I have agold card and a brown card and
a purple card, nice, I'm in allthe appended bodies right, and I
do as much lecturing as I canbecause I want to always learn
and I'm fascinated by thefraternity.
Um, and I think that'ssomething that we we have, we
should fall back on when we getinto that, like caught up in the
stupid human drama, which isinevitable, doesn't matter what

(52:09):
you're gonna have, human drama,which is inevitable, it doesn't
matter what lodge you're in,you're going to have human drama
.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, 100%, sooner or later.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
And you know, especially if you go outside
your lodge and you start to getinto being a district
committeeman after you're a pastmaster, you might want to
become a district deputygrandmaster.
No, you might want to getinvolved at the state level, at
a zone level, and let me tellyou, the higher you go, the more
drama there is, and I don'tknow that you're learning any

(52:38):
more about Freemasonry or thetenets of our fraternity by
going up the chain inFreemasonry.
I think the closer you stay toyour home lodge and the more
dedicated you are to studyingthe work, the better the
Freemasonry is going to impactyour life in a much more
profound way than getting intothe bureaucracy of it.

(53:01):
I mean, that's just me and Ithink some people love the
bureaucracy.
I mean, my mentor, one of mymentors, was a guy who was like
a master at the bureaucracy ofFreemasonry and I was always in
awe at how he was able to handleit.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Um, but he hated ritual work see, and that's the
thing is I actually really enjoyritual work, yeah, but I don't
have time for the politics right, and that's why yeah right.
So and even still I told, uh,you know the DD for District 20,
right where I was, from Roscoe.
I said, look, anywhere you havea group of guys or people in

(53:36):
general together, you're goingto have a political nature to it
.
I mean, you got differentpersonality types and you know
work backgrounds and familybackgrounds and even regionally
here in the United States youget a guy from the Northeast
that comes down here to Florida.
He's not going to mesh wellwith the people in Florida.
We just do crap different.
So either way, I told him Isaid look, whenever it comes to

(53:58):
the high end of masonry,whenever it comes to sometimes
even at the local lodge.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Are you talking about , like higher level positions in
the fraternity?

Speaker 2 (54:10):
Yeah, I'm talking, like you know like you know,
grand lodge level stuff likethat, um it's I.
I struggle with being able toseparate it or distinguish it
from regular american politicsor right, it's, it's.
It doesn't look very differentto me, it looks exactly the same
, whereas at the local lodgelevel and I love the local lodge

(54:30):
level and I- love the locallodge level.
It's fraternal.
Yeah, we're studying tomorrownight.
I got to study for an EA degreeand I think yeah, so I'm going
to be chaplain for the EA degree, even though I'm practicing for
senior warden, because we hadan empty chair.
So the DI was like hey, sitover there.
And I was like, say less so,but either way, are?

Speaker 1 (54:53):
you trying to learn?
Are you trying to memorize someof that stuff?

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Yeah, yeah.
So here's the thing Whenever wewere at Turkey Creek, we were
about to put on an EA degree forthree candidates and I was
studying to sit in the East forthe EA degree and, uh, the only
the only thing I had left tomemorize was the writing
ceremony.
That was that was it Uh?
yeah.
So I was studying to sit in theEast for an EA degree.

(55:20):
So I told him like guys like Iwant to help in degrees and like
the stewards we have over thereare like they've been stewards
for years.
They I swear they share thesame brain as stewards.
They are so good like theirmovements, steps, everything
like they step with the samefeet and one of them is like
five foot six and the otherone's six foot four.
So make that make sense.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
So, but when you see like uh, the work synchronized,
like that it's just so good it'sso much better it's so much
better yeah, when you see theguys who are like jerky and like
you first or me first, it'slike oh, come on, guys, get your
crap together well, I always.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
I always take it as because, uh, the junior steward
had to leave, so I just followwhatever the senior steward does
.
It's like no, you're, you'releading this right.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
And I'm your senior.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
So there's a pecking order and I need to respect that
pecking order.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
There are moments where the junior steward is in
front and therefore he'stechnically leading the other
one, but for the most part Iwould agree.
And if you're just talkingabout the officer chairs, the
junior steward is supposed to belearning from the senior
steward and senior steward issupposed to be learning his
junior deacon.
Spot for next year.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
And even still, that's something that has been a
vast shift from Turkey Creek toLakeland is.
You know, for example, ourbuilding committee over at
Lakeland?
I'm a general contractor.
I've spent my entire life inthe trades.
You know I did my first newconstruction job at 12 years old
.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Don't you also do AC.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Yeah, yeah, I do both .

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Two different companies, same company Yep.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Two different companies.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
So you run in two companies.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
I have two jobs.
Aha, so I have two jobs.
But either way, and here's mymindset behind it, especially
having having two jobs, isessentially I want to build an
empire to be able to hand off tothe next generation.
Like this company is not mine,this company belongs to the next
generation.
I need to build it as high as Ipossibly can to hand it off to
them.

(57:17):
You know, so you know, and thatcould be my daughter, my nieces
and nephews.
It could be anybody, any futurekids my wife and I may have.
No, this belongs to you.
I'm just building it for youand reaping the benefits, but
that also includes Disneycruises and all this other stuff
that I don't want to do.
Having said all that, yeah, sothe building committee over at

(57:43):
lakeland, at turkey creek, thesenior warden was the head of
the building committee, but hewas not good at that role, so
whenever it came to work beingdone at turkey creek, it was
just me doing it there at thelodge by myself yeah, I called
one time and you were likeinstalling toilets or something.
Yeah, I was swapping out twotoilets for ada compliant

(58:05):
toilets, yeah, which there wasnothing ada compliant about that
entire building, so I don'tknow why we even bothered.
Um, and they were gross, likeanybody who's replaced toilets,
and you get that wax ring downat the bottom of it.
This was like a solid 1975 waxring.
It was so bad I had to leveleverything.
I spent two days replacingtoilets, just because of

(58:25):
everything around them.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
That's how much you love this fraternity.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
So either way, the difference being is that over at
Lakeland the senior warden'sthe head of the building
committee.
He's probably not the best froma knowledge standpoint of
building, but I told theWorshipful Master I'm like hey,
put me on there with him.
Right the worstful master.
I'm like, hey, put me on, putme on there with him, right, and
so everything I bring to thesenior warden, it's like, look
again, there's a hierarchy and alevel of respect.
I realize that I'm competent inwhat I do.

(58:51):
You're the senior warden.
I'm going to hand you all thisinformation.
You present it as your ideabecause you're the head of the
committee right like, and that'sthe way I I believe that it
should be I.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
I think that's correct and accurate, and then
he is obviously going to giveyou credit when the time comes.
He may even say this is youridea, but ultimately he needs to
be the one presenting itbecause it's his committee.
I agree with that.
So you're now installed as thejunior deacon once again.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
And do you feel like you're going to get to sit in
all the chairs in this lodge asyou progress through the line,
barring external circumstances?
Yes, most likely.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Yeah, I mean you know , it always happens.
Somebody moves away.
There are things you can'tpredict, right.
Somebody dies Things happen.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Well, and even still, we've even talked about it
because we have such a youngline.
Our past master from last yearsat plans in motion to where,
whenever and he literally saidthis he goes by the time matt
sits in the east.
This will be at this point andryan, our current, works for
master.
He goes by the time because,you know, by the time matt sits
in the east, this will be theway things are.

(01:00:00):
What I like about all the guysin the line is we're having
conversation of okay, you're upnext, what do you want to do so
I can lay the groundwork for foryou?
Great, like, what do you needso that way I can get it done?
None of it's contentious at all.
I mean, I think I've only seentwo.
I've only seen two conflictsthe entire time I've been there

(01:00:22):
and even still, like theyweren't even conflicts in terms
of how I saw it at Turkey Creek,it's just like, hey, we have
this.
Yeah, well, I brought this upfive years ago.
Great, then you can work withthat guy while he's doing it,
since it was your ideaoriginally, and y'all guys can
just knock it out of the park.
You know, and it's sointeresting to see the
difference not only in lodges,but the difference in districts.

(01:00:45):
You know, like again we'reputting on this EA degree.
We've got like four lodges thatare showing up in Lakeland and
we're all practicing for this EAdegree that we're going to be
putting on in two weeks.
Actually, we're going to beputting on an EA degree that I'm
going to be the chaplain for.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
And you've never been chaplain before.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
No, no, it's my first time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Cha before.
No, no, it's my first time.
Chaplain's fun.
Yeah, uh, you don't have a lotof stuff to do, which why I
think it's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Don't get damaged.
And even still, I mean justlooking at it from like even
respecting of the past master'sperspective um you know because
I'm gonna sing the praises oflakeland 91 forever because,
like you know, jasmine got outof the east.
And whenever jasmine got out ofthe east it was so funny.
The first time he called melike Heather and I are right.
My wife and I are riding in thetruck and the name Jasmine
comes up across the phone andthen she just like snaps and

(01:01:29):
looks at me.
She's like who's Jasmine?
I was like first off call meAladdin.
So either way, no Jasmine call.
So either way call, or soeither way, jasmine gets out of
the east, we got him thisbeautiful custom-made past
master's apron, oh nice, youknow that, like nobody else in
our district has.
Uh, we're talking about doingmedals, um, because, uh,

(01:01:52):
travelers lodge does that.
I have a picture I'll send toyou later.
Um, but they do medals likepast masters, medals that you
can actually put on your jacketyes, I have one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yes, it's a military medal.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
It's got like the ribbon with the square at the
bottom.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
So, either way, we're talking about doing that just
to respect our past masters.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
And it's like See mine's hanging on the wall over
there next?

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Yeah, I see it.
Next to the thing, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Just above the apron.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Nice.
So it's like you know justlittle things like that is just
completely different thananything that I have ever
experienced before in masonry,and these past masters are all
coming back Like the majority ofour lodge.
Whenever we fill up a lodge fora lodge night, it's majority
past masters.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yeah, and we got a couple of guys that have never
went through the chairs, butthey've been in it for 20 years.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Really.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Yeah, so it's.
I absolutely love the mindsetover there.
I was talking to Roscoe aboutit after the trial, uh, and I
was telling him some of thedifferences in lodges and you
know, mindsets and districts and, like the dd over in 21, his
name's bear, another great guy.
He looks like an amish.
Yeah, he looks like an amishguy that didn't commit because
like he just has the chin strapand like all this is totally

(01:02:58):
clean shaven.
So, either way, like bears, Imean.
First, he's a great seniorDeacon.
I watched him in a fellow craftdegree the other night and he
is a great senior Deacon.
Um, but either way, just man,what a great group of people
over in that district.
It's been a lot of fun.
And I told Roscoe I said lookman, I got by the whenever

(01:03:26):
Turkey Creek shut down.
I got approached by four lodgesin district 20.
They wanted me to join theirlodge.
Um, I'm not going to name thelodges, I could probably tell
you offline, but I gotapproached by four different
lodges and it was just like no,no, I, I want to go somewhere
with a fresh start.
I want to go somewhere wherethe stain of turkey creek does
not follow me.
Right, you know, and I want tolearn.
You know, at the end of the day, I'm a.
I'm good at junior deacon, I'mgood at senior deacon.

(01:03:50):
Outside of the degrees I can, Iactually sat as a senior warden
.
I forgot to tell you about this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
I sat as a senior warden one night Weren't you
going to be in the East thirddegree, like you and Sean Cooney
were practicing together?

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So well, that was for the EAdegree over at Turkey Creek that
I was practicing for, but itnever happened.
No, it never happened.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Ah, that sucks.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
But no.
So I was over at Lakeland Lodge.
It was my first night as amember of Lakeland Lodge and
they got a whole bunch of pastmasters there.
Everything Our senior wardenhad to call out.
He had a family, familyemergency.
And so the worst fool comes upto me and he's like he's from
Bosnia, he's like my brother.
I have a question.
And I was like all right, whatyou got, jasmine.
He was like would you sit asthe senior warden tonight

(01:04:36):
Because Ryan's out?
And I was like Jasmine, I thinkthe digest says that a past
master has to sit as seniorwarden.
He goes, yes, but I can't finda past master to sit in the seat
.
They all want to be a part ofthe conversation.
And I was like okay, he goes.
We checked, there's a rightworshipful here, there's a guy
who knows our digest here.
We checked and I can appointsomeone to sit in the West,
would you do it?

(01:04:56):
And I'm like Jasmine, I'venever done it before.
I've been a Mason for exactlyone year at this point, sure
exactly one year at this point.
Sure, sure, give it a shot.
So there, a past DI was in theroom, right, honorable was in
the room and I leaned over tohim and I said, hey, right,
honorable, and he goes.
Yeah, and I said can you sit inthe Marshall seat tonight?
And just like, if I mess up,hit me with a stick?

(01:05:17):
He's like, I'm like saying mylines and everything, and so
after the meeting was over, helooks over at me and he was like
you only missed two words theentire time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
That's great.
Oh, because you have beenpracticing the degree, so you
probably picked up a lot of theother chairs, so you probably
picked up a lot of the otherchairs.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
No, no.
So every time we open and closea lodge any lodge that I'm in
anytime there's an opening andclosing of the lodge I mouth
everything.
I sit there and say and I knowa lot of people do this I sit
there and say what everybody'slines are.
And I've been doing that eversince I started and even still,
as I was memorizing the East forthe EA degree, I was still

(01:06:03):
memorizing everybody else's line, kind of like James Earl Jones.
If you've ever heard his actingmethodology, how he does it?
He doesn't just memorize hisparts, he memorizes the entire
script.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
Yeah, and so that's what James Earl Jones did and
I'm like, well, if it works forhim, it can work for me.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Let's do it it kind of is smart because, yeah, I
think if you only know your partand somebody else makes a
mistake, it can really mess youup.
Yeah, but I think if you knowall the work and somebody makes
a mistake, you're already sayingthe right stuff in your head
anyways, and it doesn't affectyou necessarily as badly.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Well, and so here was the reason why I started
memorizing everybody's partbadly.
Well, and so here was thereason why I started memorizing
everybody's part.
So I get raised December 9th of2023, and January I'm installed
as junior deacon.
Like that's how fast ithappened, you know, it was less
than 30 days and I was installedas junior deacon and our senior
warden at Turkey Creek.
I love him, but he just couldnot get everything down, so he

(01:07:03):
every time we opened the lodge,he would open in the EA degree,
every single time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
And so.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
I finally took it upon myself and I was like I got
to memorize the senior warden'spart, because if he gets hung
up on something there's nobodyelse.
We didn't have a Marshall overat Turkey Creek so I'm like
there's nobody else over herefor this guy.
So I would be like it's this,it's this right, you know, and
try to help him along, you know,throughout opening and closing.
So I guess that's kind of whatstarted me on doing it and it's

(01:07:32):
it served me well.
Uh, and any new master masons,I would encourage you to do the
same memorize.
It's not very difficult tomemorize all of it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Uh, it's just gonna do it.
It can be overwhelming, but ifyou just take a little bit at a
time, you'll get there.
Just keep at it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
Start by memorizing Junior Deacon.
And even still, while I wasdoing my fellow craft catechisms
, while I was doing my fellowcraft catechisms, I was being
taught Junior Deacon.
Wow, so yeah, so it's likewe're wrapping up.
You know we're there training.
You know we got multiple peoplein the room.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
That's a sign of desperation, in my opinion.
I would never.
That would be an absolute lastresort for me.
Only because it's really hardto get your brain into the
memorization phase when you'redoing the catechisms and I would
never want to confuse someonewith like more stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Well, catechisms and I would never want to confuse
someone with like more stuffwell, yeah, thanks for reminding
me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
I've seen it.
I've seen it in other lodges,in fact, and I've actually told
people.
You need to stop that.
And you know some people thinkit's good because you want to
get the new people involved.
That's their thinking like getthose new people involved and
they'll be involved at juniorsteward exactly give them two
years to hear everything they

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
haven't memorized.
At that point they'll go todegrees, at that point they'll
help.
We'll have training nights, youknow.
And then you know, like rightnow, if we our training nights
is every third monday, so it'slike our meeting nights are
second and fourth mondays and onthe third, third Monday we do
training.
So it's like if anybody wantsto sit as junior Deacon and
learn junior Deacon, I don'thave to.
I have.
I have that memorized.

(01:09:09):
I have senior Deacon memorized.
I've got almost all the partsmemorized, except for like a
handful of wording at theworshipful master station.
So about transactions, likethat's a weird one.
So, but either way is it's likeit's not difficult, just take
one role at a time.
Learn that role.
Yeah, okay, now build on to thesenior deacon.

(01:09:29):
Now build on with junior warden.
Now build on with senior warden.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
And you're right.
Every time you go to a meetingthere's plenty of opportunities.
It's basically a practicesession.
If you do it in your head, yeah, instead of staring at the wall
and trying to stay awake,listen, listen and try to say it
in your head.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Yeah, and then at that point, if you memorize the
words early, on the only.
Thing you have to memorize.
After that is floor work and ifyou have any anomalies, like
you know, the challenge to allpresent being master masons like
that's the next thing we'regoing to practice is, you know
the challenge.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
Yeah, yeah, I've never participated in that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
I've seen it, but I've never participated in it we
I'm still going to talk aboutturkey creek for a minute.
That senior warden we had overthere.
He did a challenge one nightand none of us were ready for it
like we hadn't practiced it,but he was being cute and he was
like I'm not satisfied and I,like all of us, just went like
just snapped over and lookedright at him and I was like I'm
not satisfied.
and I, like all of us, just wentlike just snapped over and

(01:10:26):
looked right at him and I waslike, oh so luckily, like I was
over at, I think, brandon lodgeand they practiced it might have
been brandon lodge, I can'tremember who it was, but anyway
I was at a lodge and I they dida challenge to the to that
question and so our seniordeacon that night kind of knew
it and I sort of knew it.
So it's like all right, wefumbled through it and luckily

(01:10:49):
it was just our lodge that wasthere.
Not anybody external showed up.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Well, I've had the fortune to travel a bit and
there are jurisdictions wherethat is part of their work.
They have to do it every time,believe it or not.
Every opening, they've have todo it every time.
Nice, believe it or not, everyopening, they've got to do that,
which is crazy.
Coming from florida, you'relike you guys are crazy and
they're like you don't do this.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
We're like no, so we're doing our next practice
session because we're going tohave a dd uh reception before
grand lodge.
We've been told we're going tohave a dd reception, um, and so
I told the worshipful masterwhenever I first got to Lakeland
I said, hey, man, one, we needto practice opening and closing,
like that's a given.
Like just open lodge, closelodge, like you know, let's

(01:11:34):
practice that.
But we have got to practice DDand Grand Master reception,
because the one time we receivedthe Grand Master over at Turkey
Creek that I was there, webombed so hard.
It was embarrassing I meanembarrassing the grand honors
weren't done right, nothing wasdone right.

(01:11:55):
And it was especially funnybecause the night in October the
grandmaster asked the DI.
He was like, how was theiropening?
And he goes, I'd give him a twoout of five.
And in my mind I'm sitting herethinking you are being so
generous right now.
Like so generous, like cause.
He was over here, he was to myright and I'm like you are being

(01:12:17):
so generous right now, man.
So, uh, and he goes properly.
And this is the same guy thattaught me how to be senior
deacon.
Right, and he goes.
Grandmaster, the senior deaconwas flawless, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Thank you Didn't save the charter, though, did it no?

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
no, no, it didn't.
No, but honestly.
And so my wife, my wife talkedto me about this too, cause,
like whenever I would come homefrom a Turkey Creek meeting, I
mean, I had like a 15 minutedrive home and it was just phone
call after phone call and textmessage after text message of
just drama.
Yeah.
It's just drama and so I'd gethome and it's like the I

(01:12:55):
wouldn't even go in and kiss mywife first, Like it was like I'm
pouring me a scotch Right andthen I'm going to go kiss my
wife because it's like, no, thisis like my emotional support,
scotch so.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
I've been there.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Yeah, so it was just, it was stressing me out and
then, you know, coming up with aplan of action and you know,
getting everybody on board.
And my days were just consumedwith call after call, after call
.
And I talked to you at onepoint where it's like no, I've
had to charge my phone threetimes today.
It's like no, I've had tocharge my phone three times
today.
It's like that's how bad it hadgotten.
And then I get over to Lakeland.

(01:13:27):
And so I came home from a lodgenight over in Lakeland while I
was still at Turkey Creek, and Iwas happy.
I was like happy, like Ienjoyed it, it was wholesome,
had great conversations witheverybody.
And she looked at me and she'slike matt, you need to leave
turkey creek and you need tojoin lakeland.
I was like, but, but turkeycreek's my home, it's a place I

(01:13:48):
was raised like I had the exactsame experience.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
Yeah, exactly the same.
I I was, I my.
Sarasota isn't the lodge I wasraised in, and that's because of
the exact same thing you justmentioned.
It got to the point where whenI visited another lodge, my wife
said I think you're in thewrong place.
Yeah, and then I would comeback from meetings after I

(01:14:14):
switched and she would be likeso what's the drama tonight?
And I'm like none.
She's like, oh, you're notgoing to tell me, huh, I'm like
no, like no, there isn't any.
She was shocked because forlike a year, every meeting, you
come home in a bad mood.
You're stressed out.
Yeah, you're writing thingsdown, you're trying to plan
because, like, how am I going tofix this fire?

(01:14:34):
Whatever the fire was thatnight, right, and it just it
makes your whole Masonicexperience so much better.
I don't know how people lastfor years in that environment
where it's all negative.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
I think it's people who thrive on that and and there
is a personality type thatthrives on the drama.
I mean they, they just enjoy itand it's like look, if you're
that person, great, I'm happyfor you.
Like, I'm happy you have that,um that, but I get enough drama

(01:15:07):
throughout my day.
Right, yeah, I mean I work twojobs.
I'm self-employed.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
I manage another 35 year business Got young kids at
home.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
I got a kid at home.
It's like I got a.
I got a wife who I love and I'mso happy that she is being as
patient as she is on masonryCause.
It's like last week, last week,every night I was gone for
something to do with masonry,every night, oof, I did not put
my kid to bed one time last week.
And then it's like Friday nightrolls around.

(01:15:32):
It's like Friday night's mynight.
And then another phone callhappens on Friday night and I'm
just like, and it was a stupidcall, like that was the thing
that got me, like it was apointless call and I'm just like
, like I'm trying to eat pizzaand watch a movie with my
daughter, who's not seen me allweek, like I've only been in
there in the mornings to see heroff, and it's like, and I'm

(01:15:52):
gonna be gone saturday morningbefore she gets up to go to her
traveler's lodge wait, I think Iwas involved with that call,
wasn't it?
sorry about that, I apologize itwasn't your fault, okay, um,
but even still, it was just oneof those things where it was
like, and even still, that's whyI called you today.
It's like, no, you and I arefine, yeah, but it was just

(01:16:13):
pointless.
And so finally I just got to apoint where it's like I just
want to sit down with my wifeand with my kid.
I've been gone every night todo with masonry, and so I think
it was today.
We're walking around Publixtoday, uh, doing some grocery
shopping, and she goes hey, Ihave a question.
I was like, yeah, what's up?
She goes does masonry go throughdifferent seasons of being busy

(01:16:34):
and then not so busy?
And I said, yes, from what I'veseen, yes, sure, in a busy
season right now it should clearup here pretty soon I'm on an
investigation committee for liketwo npd brothers.
Uh, I'm on investigations forall the turkey creek guys, um,
that are coming over to lakelandlodge.
So it's like, yeah, we're busyright now, but if it gets too

(01:16:56):
bad, I have learned thegrandmaster's secret word that
was lost, and that answer is noyeah yeah yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
A lot of people don't want to.
They think saying no is goingto hurt their masonic future or
something like.
People will never ask themagain if they say no.
Right, and so they say yes toeverything.
And really that's not true.
People respect the fact thatyou say no.
You got a life, you got stuffgoing on.
Say no for your own health,because masonry is a long haul.

(01:17:26):
Yeah, it is not a.
It's not going to be over whenyou're master of the lodge,
that's for sure.
Um, this is a lifetime endeavor, so you know you can't run at a
full pace like you're running a200 meter race for the rest of
your life.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Yeah, you gotta pace yourself no, and in all
seriousness, I had to back awayfrom grotto and there you go and
I love the guys over at grotto.
I mean grotto, I kid you notfrom where I'm sitting right now
.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Grotto is like five minutes that direction in which
grotto are you a member of?

Speaker 2 (01:17:57):
zinda okay yeah, so, and even it's the same guys that
did that um the charity bikeride to alaska and back.
Very cool, read that article.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
Yeah, yeah, so that did the charity bike ride to
Alaska and back Very cool.
Did you ever read that article?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
So they did a charity bike ride to Alaska and back
and raised funds along the way.
They raised like $50,000 forSpecial Smiles.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
And even still and, by the way, if anybody's
listening, if you've got a placewhere we can send the money for
Special Smiles so these arekids with developmental
disabilities that insurance willnot cover their dental.
So it's just like, hey, applyhere, you know, and they've got
a war chest that they just wantto give away.
So, having said all that, Ilove all those guys over there.

(01:18:36):
I still go to Grotto.
I'm still a Grotto member, butI was supposed to be an elected
officer this year in Grotto.
And finally, the monarch overthere, travis, and he's a great
dude.
He's got a big heart on him.
I'm like Travis dude.
I can't, because.
Second and fourth Monday islodge meeting nights.
Third Monday is practice.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
And third, monday is whenever.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Grotto meets and it's like I want to, but I can't
because I have to learn BlueLodge first, right Like but I
can't because I have to learnBlue Lodge first.
Right, like if I don't haveBlue Lodge then I don't have
York.
Right, I don't have Grotto If Idon't have a Blue Lodge.
So I told him I was like buddy,I'm sorry I can't.
And so I told him I was like,look, I'll still help with, you
know, fundraising and events andall that other stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
I'll still help on that.
All that other stuff is stillgoing to be there when you get
done in the blue lodge and youhave more time on your hands,
don't?
You're only going to make yourblue lodge experience worse by
participating in other lines anddependent bodies at the same
time?
Yeah, I guess, depending onyour lodge, maybe you've got a
lodge where there's not a lotgoing on and it's super slow and

(01:19:49):
you're bored out of your mind.
It could be a differentsituation.
But the way you're describingyour current lodge is you're
busy, you have an agenda,there's things going on.
Yeah, you know, in thatenvironment you definitely don't
want to be a working guy andget involved in another officer
line and another pendant body.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
Yeah, and honestly I felt so bad.
So I'm a York Rite Mason and myhome lodge, I guess you would
call it would be Plant City,york Rite Hail, compatriot, yeah
.
So either way, because they metat Turkey Creek, they've
recently moved to like 40minutes from here up north, so

(01:20:27):
it's like the total oppositedirection of way we didn't even
talk about that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
How far was turkey creek from your house and how
far is your current lot?

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
uh, turkey creek was about 10 to 15 minutes,
depending on.
You know, like at the festivalsin town you know strawberry
festival or whatever.
Um, it wasn't that bad.
You know it was all back roads.
Um, you know no strawberryfestival or whatever.
Um, it wasn't that bad.
You know it was all back roads.
Um, you know, no street lights,just all back roads.
Um, lakeland lodge is about 20to 25 minutes and that's
interstate.
So bad but I do a lot of stuffin Lakeland, so it's not

(01:20:57):
terrible.
But, um, but either way, yeah,so York way, yeah, so york right
moves up to like wesley almostwesley chapel area, which, like
I said, is like 40, 45 minutesfrom me, and so I'm talking to
um charles, uh, um, oh man, Idon't even know the york right
labels, but either way, brothercharles, over in lakeland, and
he's like, yeah, like we needguys to show up and participate

(01:21:18):
in all this other stuff, and I'mlike I'll transfer my
membership, but I can't promiseI'm going to be active, brother.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
Right, not right now.
At some point in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
And eventually I want to be, because York right, the
lessons in York right Are greatand especially with, like, young
millennials and Gen Zers, Ithink they're looking for
something like York right.
You know, if you look at thislike day's vault movement that
they're doing, god wills it.
You know a lot.
Look at this like day's vaultmovement that they're doing, god
wills it.
You know a lot of them areturning through.
I'll send you a news article onit but a lot of them are
turning to like OrthodoxChristianity or or Catholicism.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Really.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
It's like that's kind of right in your wheelhouse of
what you're wanting, of thetradition, the um.
You know the ritual of that YepCostumes.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
Yeah, if you're, if you've ever been a fan of
Captain Crunch, you will lovethe hat in the commander.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
Oh, I didn't even think about that, yep, yep,
you'll have a whole bird on yourhead.
It's fascinating, but, by theway, yeah, so that's where I
ended up.
Um, I love Lakeland Lodge.
Um, phenomenal brothers overthere.
Um, I will be at Grand Lodgethis year.
You can't pull me away fromGrand Lodge this year.
I am so very excited for all ofthat.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
Well, this is your first Grand Lodge, that
communication that you'reattending.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
This will be the first one that I'm attending.
I could have went to last year,but I was so new I was like
it's kind of pointless for me togo.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
I don't anticipate this is going to be a normal
grand communication, so don'tknow.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
And that's why I want to go.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
Yeah, and hopefully if everything goes well.
Uh, it'll be my first timeofficially meeting you face to
face.
I still have not met you faceto face and show your hand.

Speaker 1 (01:22:59):
It's crazy to think about.
Yeah, dang nice, so do you wantto keep doing this?
Matt?
Are we going to start gearingup the content machine again
talking about freemasonry, or isthis?

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
totally okay with it.
Um it it really depends on it'sactually kind of out of our
hands.
Um, you know, depending on howthings go in the future, on if
anything you know, let's say, wego over born in blood, you know
, by John Robinson, you know,could that be taken a different
way?
You know, as we cover thatcontent, so I, I'm all about it,

(01:23:34):
I want to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Yeah, no thanks, I don't want any part of that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
Pull up politics stuff, whether it's Masonic or
otherwise, but Full up politicsstuff, whether it's Masonic or
otherwise, but either way I meanthat's kind of what it boils
down to is trying to find thatsweet spot right in the middle
is extremely rare.
You laugh.
I think I've talked to youabout this.

Speaker 1 (01:23:51):
I'm not laughing.

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
My 50-year goal.
This is legitimately my 50-yeargoal is I want to start a
compound out where I plan onmoving, which is going to be the
next county over where I wantto put a school, a potentially
like a Masonic home-esque stylefacility, a church and a Masonic

(01:24:12):
lodge on the second floor ofthat church.
I would love nothing more thanto have all of that all on one
property, like a good hundred120 acre property, and it's like
going to be like a Montessoristyle school where it's like the
kids are learning stuff.
They're not learning geometricalgorithms, no, they're learning
how to file taxes and changetires.

(01:24:34):
They're learning how to buildstuff.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
I would love nothing more than to have something like
that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:39):
There you go.
Any investors listening?
Let's do it.
Man has a plan.
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
Man has a plan, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
Man has a plan.
How can they reach you?

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
You can reach me on Facebook under Matt Stone.
You can email me at matt atclassicdesignspccom.
If you hop on the On the Levelpodcast page, you're going to
see me commenting on there.
So yeah, reach out to me.

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
Awesome man.
I really appreciate you takingthe time on a Sunday to do this
with me.
Anytime, brother, we'll getthis edited and put out real
quick, and I look forward to thenext one.

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:25:15):
And you guys will be hearing more from us.
It's either going to be born inblood or I'm not opposed to
doing some of this.
Uh, christian comparison withfreemasonry stuff fascinates me
too.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
We can do that I will write up and send you a top 10
and we'll dive into every bit ofthem okay, all right, sounds
good.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
You heard it from here on.
The low podcast is out out you.

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