DDGM Messages for 2005-2006

Aggression: Lets Leave it at the Door

Brethren, we are so fortunate to have the teachings of Free Masonry in our lives. I know of no other way to have the lessons of morality so accessible for all to enjoy and practice without persecution. Every thing about our Fraternity guides us to a better more enjoyable life. It teaches us to live our lives to the fullest of happiness and tolerance for our fellow man.

Many years ago I had the honour to meet a man whom I wish I had known for much longer than I had the opportunity to as he passed away not long after I met him. I do not know if he was a Mason but if he wasn't he certainly lived his life similar to the lessons and teachings of our Fraternity. He was truly a great lover of children and for many years after their own children were grown, this man and his wife opened their home to foster children from the Children's Aid. He reminisced one day to me about one particular child that had been in their care. A ten year old had come to stay with them and had become one of the children that had taught him a great lesson. This little boy was so full of aggression that he broke everything he could. Dishes, windows and toys were no match for this kid, he smashed every thing. Then he said something to me that I have never forgotten, "You cannot mould a mind that is filled with aggression." He then proceeded to tell me how he solved the problem with this little boy. One day he purchased a pallet full of bricks and a brand new hammer. He took the boy and told him he could break everyone of the bricks on the pallet if he wanted. The boy proceeded to smash away at the bricks for the next fourteen hours. At the end of the day the boy came to him and said "I don't think I want to break anymore bricks." Actually, he didn't want to break anything anymore. His aggression was gone. He left it at the brick pile.

As Masons we are expected to leave our aggression outside the Lodge. We are told to resolve our differences amicably and then enter the Lodge and work with love and harmony. This is explained in the apron charge in the first degree.

The working tools of each degree are separate and distinct, as you all know. The tools in the first degree are of particular interest as they are ones that you can exhibit considerable force with and that is not the case with the tools in the other degrees. The common gavel and the chisel are both tools of aggression with the twenty four inch gauge directing the path for the release of our aggression thereby enabling us to clear the mind and begin to absorb the lessons of Free Masonry. None of the tools in the fellow craft degree or the master masons degree show any evidence of tools of aggression. Our initiation into masonry is an emblematic representation of our birth to a new life and a clear mind that will absorb like a sponge, the lessons of virtue, morality and brotherly love.

The man I knew many years ago had already discovered that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. A mind full of aggression is a waste to mankind and of no use to the Brethren in a Masonic Lodge. If we are able to free our minds and open our spirits to universal tolerance, we will then be able to fully absorb those truly Masonic lessons and carefully mould our lives by the principles of brotherly love, relief and truth.

"If it is to be, it is up to me."