Normally I don’t complain about my life in this blog, but it does have a Masonic connection. I was Hawaii this past week, now I am sitting in LAX waiting for my flight back, oh by the way it’s 10:45pm, and I won’t arrive home until 8:30 am, with three lay over, hence the title.
My Masonic complaint is that this past week there was a lodge meeting in Hawaii that was holding a raising. I got excited and went and contacted the lodge and in the e-mail I wrote “Please let me know if I may attend your raising”, and I never got a response back. Hence I didn’t go, so my question is for the six people that read this blog, should I just go anyway when a lodge never contacts me back? I feel the digital cold shoulder and I think “Yeah, I shouldn’t go”, I guess if they really didn’t want me there they would e-mail me back, but I have a hang up for some reason. The thing is that this has happened to me several times, and I am sure I missed some great work because of it.
I think I will just show up in the future, even if I get the digital cold shoulder.
6 comments:
It's nice to have advance notice, but don't forget - they might not have a secretary who reads the emails on a regular basis. Not all of us check theirs every five minutes ;-)
We've had several bros just show up at meetings and degrees. Mostly they were traveling and stopping in the state for a few days. By all means, just go.
Just go. That's what I've done when visiting in other jurisdictions. If you're a MM and your GL recognises theirs', there shouldn't be a need to "ask" if you can attend.
Justa
That's a difficult question, Brother. I would refrain from going but contact them again to try to find out why they didn't respond. It's possible that they just plain forgot, or were so het up by the raising that they didn't email you back.
If you're in London in February, May, October or November come to my Lodge; you will be most welcome. Visiting is one of the great things about Freemasonry, both visiting and receiving visitors. To pass up an opportunity to welcome a visitor seems a bit churlish.
Depends on where your email is going. Did you use a "general" lodge email address, or was it a particular person's email?
In my experience, if you're using a general Lodge email address there's a good chance your email is going into the ether some place and not coming back out again because the Brother who set up the address forgot to update it to the current secretary, or Master, or someone who regularly checks their email.
Probably not a purposeful cold shoulder, but probably an "oops someone forgot to check the email" shoulder.
I say show up anyway. :D
I would try and contact the secretary by email and phone # as well. If, there is a link to a district site, I would also go through more official channels. Sometimes, in this day of emails and instant communication people forget that it's easier to get an answer by picking up the phone. In my experience, many masons don't use email daily or even weekly for that matter.
I agree with the majority here. No brother would every be turned away from a lodge if he can prove he is a master mason. I would go anyway. of course carrying proper identification always helps. We welcome visiting brothers who drop in at our lodge.
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