Do You Use the Trowel for the Spreading of Brotherly Love or Resentment

   First, my recent disappearance has been because we moved, and renovated, neither of which was a lot of fun.  I am very thankful and lucky to be a homeowner again, it has been 2 years, and I am grateful.  Secondly, I have been active in my real life Masonic pursuits, including leading up a couple of apendent bodies, working in my Blue Lodge line-up.  This is of course is coupled with my other obligations of work and serving this country as a reservist.

   Also, and I will be honest, I haven't gotten the most glowing reviews lately, and apparently have pushed some of you off from my writings.  This includes my criticism in the establishment of the Masonic Rangering Company here in Texas and the execution of Traditional Observance Lodges, across the country.  I will address these both separately:

Masonic Rangering Company:  I am not alone in my issues with this organization and it as it isn't providing any further light for Masonry and seems to be more of an expansive Square and Compasses club than anything else.  The amount of effort put into this very niche masonic organization by our Grand Lodge, doesn't seem like the best use of resources, both financial and human capital.  I was decried because it gave some non-masonic critics fodder, to which I say "So?"  This happens all the time, and I didn't post anything that was secret or not readily available to the general public.  The Masonic Rangering Company still moves on despite my post, and I doubt it will go away anytime soon, but I did exercise my right to not agree with the organization, which is completely legitimate.

Traditional Observance Lodges:  My intention of this post was to show that Traditional Observance lodges while very appealing broadly to "younger" masons has been lacking in the execution department.  The belief that a Masonic concept is somehow above reproach is completely irrational.  The crux of the matter is simply that TO/EO lodges don't have the ability to start daughter lodges in North America (not that I am aware of), this makes the lodge in theory stagnate after 30-50 members, and breeds a level of cronyism and nepotism that is much higher than in a standard blue lodge, inventing in essence an invitational blue lodge.  Another cultural disconnect is that Past Master and PDDGM don't carry the weight in Europe that it does in the states as a form of rank and structure, which add to the cronyism and nepotism.

For the record, I don't believe that Traditional Observance Lodges cast any disparagement on our fraternity, that the practices of TO/EO concepts is irregular or clandestine, or that current standard blue lodges are just fine the way they are.  On the flip side, the belief that TO is the only thing that is going to somehow going to magically save our fraternity when it copyrights it rituals, has had high fees associated with it in the past, and ignores the issues above, isn't doing them any favors, and denial of it doesn't bode well.

My intent of these two articles, was not to spread resentment, and it saddens me that some of you have taken them personally.  Some of you stop communicating with me entirely, and again, my apologies if my message came across poorly.

I always want to use the trowel for the spreading of brotherly love, not resentment.

S&F,
-Bro Vick