TRESTLEBOARD

June 2001

Greetings Brethren:

Summer is almost upon us. Hard to believe after all this fine spring weather. I never knew Medina had a monsoon season. Even though we're almost done for the summer, there's still plenty of work to be done.

Rumor has it that I will be having two EA's returning on Thursday, June 14^th. That also means we will be putting on the FC degree on both of these candidates that very same night.

We also have one more candidate for an EA degree. Dan Bonfiglio was voted in at our last stated meeting. Dan has been attending college and just completed his final exams for this year (you know there are some things about college life I just don't miss). So, we'll take a look at the calendar on the night of the 14^th and pick a day or night to call a special. Either come to the meeting the 14^th or call one of your officers so you can join us putting on this fine degree.

Speaking of fine degrees. We raised Brother Kevin McCray. I want to thank all those brethren who turned out and helped put the degree on. As you know, to do it properly takes a lot of brothers. I'm sure Kevin enjoyed it. Kevin even had some distinguished family members there, one of whom is a Past Master of Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, Fredericksburg, Virginia. For those of you who are not up on your Masonic history, George Washington was a member of that lodge. One thing this distinguished brother told me he noticed immediately was the lodge room, he thought it looked great! So people really do notice.

Finally, our ladies night is June 21^st. Dinner at 6:00, entertainment at 7:00. Entertainment by Harp to Harp who are professionally trained harpists with degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music and Cleveland State University. These experienced harpists have together over 60 years of playing experience. Their experiences range from principal positions in professional orchestras and opera companies to entrepreneurs in teaching and free-lancing. So join us, it should be a fun evening.

Free Breakfast: Our last breakfast before going dark will be Saturday, June 16^th from 9:00-11:00. Special thanks to our Tyler, Bob Askew, and his wife Pat who have done an outstanding job in preparing these breakfasts.
 

A.I. Root Park is located at Lawrence Street and West Sturbridge Drive

Reagan Park is located at East Reagan Parkway and Reynolds Road
(To access Field #2 enter off Reynolds Road)

is posted on our website. The game schedule was posted June 2nd and may also be viewed by logging on to the site and clicking the link on the Trestleboard page. If you haven't visited the site for a week or two, take another look - new items are being added regularly. The Trestleboard newsletter is posted to our website in advance of every mailing. If you would like to save your Lodge the cost of publishing and mailing your Trestleboard newsletter, log on to the site, read and/or download the latest copy and send an e-mail message to your Secretary telling him to cancel your snail-mail newsletter,

A new member, once the lodge has approved his petition, makes his way into that world gradually, not all at once spectacularly or dramatically, but in three steps, each of which is sufficient to occupy his mind, usually for from two to four weeks. These steps are called degrees. A degree is an organization of ceremonies and rites, each of which is relatively independent of the others; and no man can become a member of the lodge until he has passed through the three of them. Masons themselves look upon these degrees with a certain solemn reverence; they have an inalienable dignity; and if in some one lodge anything were done to embarrass a candidate, the lodge would be in danger of having its charter removed. There is nothing whatever in them that is similar to a college hazing; still less are they similar to ordeals with which primitive folk still initiate their youth into tribal secrets.

The three degrees of Ancient Craft Freemasonry, composed as they are of ceremonies and rites, are, when taken together, what Freemasons mean when they refer to their ritual. This ritual is almost wonderful beyond words; only a Homer or a Shakespeare could do it justice. A man who studies it until he has learned it "by heart" has a treasure for himself which literally is beyond price. More than one man has risen to eminence in American public life because he learned the art of public address through years of practice in it, or has become a great orator because the ritual taught him a golden vocabulary and initiated him into the secrets of language. If the ritual is taken solely as literature, then it stands on a par with such masterpieces Homer's Iliad, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Shakespeare's plays. If it is studied from its aspect as something for the mind to think through, it ranks with the philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle. If any non-Mason, greatly daring, decides to petition for membership in the Masonic Fraternity he is not to expect a hazing, or any highjinks; he is to take off his shoes, he is to bow his head, and as the prophet Samuel said, to stand upon his feet and be a man. No Freemason now, or at any time during the past thousand years, has ever apologized in advance to any petitioner for what he will find.

Illiteracy an Enemy