John Ratcliff's Weblog

Here is a picture from Memorial Day weekend 2005. Last year we had a lot of fun and with all of our friends, especially with Steven. This year we kept Steven in our thoughts throughout the day, yet still had fun in the sun because that is what he would have wanted. Our families decorated the Solomon's boat as a memorial to Steven for the blessing of the fleet. On Friday I went to the Missouri State Conclave of DeMolay in Jefferson City. We took 11 members from our chapter, five adult advisors, as well as both our sweetheart and associate sweetheart; 18 people in all. We had a great time as you can see from the photo gallery located here. On Sunday evening Troy Chapter received its charter which recognizes us officially. We will be adding the names of all of the founding members and get the document framed to be hung in Troy Lodge, our sponsoring body. Our weekend included opening, the initiation ceremony, and the DeMolay degree all on Friday night. On Saturday we competed in volle...

I am safely back home from my business trip to the Pacific Northwest. Even though the business portion of my trip was a shining success I am thoroughly annoyed, dissapointed, and discouraged that I did not die in some outlandish natural disaster as predicted by a number of reputable persons. Here, now, I find myself on terra firma, whole and sound, with nary a scratch or buise on my body or soul; what a let down. I leftthis morning at 4:45am local time and arrived here in Saint Louis at 4pm. It took me an hour just to retrieve my luggage and my car and, yet another hour just to get home. I then rushed off to a DeMolay meeting and made plans for tomorrow's trip to State Conclave. I will spend the next three days with 11 members of our youth group at this statewide event. I expect the young men to have a great time that will help them grow as both individuals and brothers. On Monday I will return for my annual Memorial Day BBQ which is always a great deal of fun. On Tuesday I ...

I don't have anything eventful to report. My trip yesterday went smoothly. I read the third book in the "Historical Illuminatus" trilogy titled "Nature's God'. It was not nearly as good as 'The Widow's Son' and RAW relapsed into his mode of using his characters and plot for the primary purpose of allowing himself to either rant or philosophize. It really felt like the ending left things very 'unfinished'. It was over five years between this novel and the previous one, and I don't know if he ever did any continued work with that character. I still have to read the *first* book, so I'm doing this whole thing in a temporarly confused way. I gave my copy of 'The Widow's Son' to my friend John Miles. I think he will quite enjoy it. Last evening I went through the obligatory ritual of watching 'The DaVinci Code' movie. There just isn't much to say on this topic. I did not like the book so the movie met my expectat...

Hurray, I get to take a trip. I haven't been anywhere since my trip to Florida in February, and I really need a break. Now, don't get me wrong, it is definitely a 'work' trip. However, since I am meeting up with my very good friends at RAD GameTools it will be an enjoyable one. I get to see Mitch, Mike, Mike, Tom, Jeff and John. John Miles is a very good friend of mine and I always enjoy the time we get to spend together. Even though it is a 'work trip' it is still a big break for me. I get to read lots of books during my 14 total hours of travel time there and back again. In the evenings I will be able to go out to dinner with my good friends and even the work itself will be something new and fun. No, it's not a 'vacation' by any stretch of the imagination but it sure is a change in scenery. Pictured above is my friend John Miles standing next to his Ferrari on one of my last trips to Seattle. Of course I checked to see if any lodges were meeting...

Tim Boucher over at the 'Pop Occulture' weblog has made a highly entertaining post today. I recommend you check it out and get your daily dose of weirdness. Finally, here is something quite interesting. Right Worshipful Brother Chris Hodapp, famed author of 'Freemasons for Dummies' now has his own blog on blogger. He even links a number of other Freemason blogs, including this one. I find this all a bit interesting since some of these Freemason blogs are pretty 'out there'. In my own case, this isn't even a Freemason blog, it's just my personal blog where I talk about crap going on in my life (with the exception of my job). Since my life and interests intersect Freemason themes quite often, then chances are you might see a vaugely relevant post here from time to time. I look forward to reading Brother Hodapp's posts on a regular basis. His book is highly recommended, even despite the 'dummies' title.

Ok, I finished 'The Widow's Son' by RAW, and enjoyed it a great deal. I hate to give it away but, for the sake of the discussion, I will reveal who is the 'Widow's Son'. Of course, in Freemasonry, the 'Widow's Son' is Hiram Abiff. But, then again, we are told that all is allegory and symbol and even this drama has parallels to other mythological figures. In the book, near the end, the 'Widow's Son' is revealed as the son of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. This is all based on the simple observation that since Jesus Christ was a Rabbi then, logically speaking, he would have to be married. It has been suggested that the wedding where Jesus turns water into wine was, in fact, his own. None of this interests me all that much. I have no particular investment in any of the Christ myths and I make very few assertions about any hypothetical 'historical Jesus'. I suspect a man did live, once a long time ago, who's life led to ...

I was looking at "The Eight Sermon of the Dead" web log and saw he referenced the following quiz. As I wasted my time answering the quiz questions I thought the entire thing was rather stupid since it didn't have any questions that seemed in any way relevant to me. In fact, I answered 'completely disagree' with virtually every single question. Nevertheless, it said I was a 'Zoroastrian Pagan', whatever the heck that is. Then I searched on 'Zoroaster' and found the following Wikipedia entry . I found it amusing when I read the article that it is claimed Freemasonry stole from the Zoroaster tradition. Shrug..you learn something new every day. You can read about Zoroastricsm at the Internet Sacred Text archive here . Remember that the Internet Sacred Text Archive is *always* the best resource in the world for religious teachings. I strongly recommend you support their worthy effort as I have. In fact, I just noticed today that they have recently adde...

Artist Bruce Holwerda Student artist Dwyer Kilcolllin of Washington University in Saint Louis. Astro photographer Scott Johnson For Mother's day today I took Terry and Alex to Laumeier Sculpture park to attend the art fair. Terry's Mother's day present was an Olympus E500 8 megapixel camera. She has been wanting to get a fancy new camera for quite some time so I decided to go ahead and buy one. I get her old camera; our trusty Kodak EasyShare 4 megapixel job which, surprisingly, takes pretty decent pictures. At the top of this page are photographs of the work of three artists who really impressed me today. The first is a painting by Bruce Holwerda. You can review his complete portfolio at www.bruceholwerda.com For conventional media fine art I was most impressed by his work. The second piece is a dress by a student artist at Washington University named Dwyer Kilcollin . The dress appears to have been stitched together from cut-up pieces of rubber innertubes. I know my d...

It has recently come to my attention that this web log is way, way, way, too freaking serious. I was going to embark on a series of posts about the meaning and purpose of ritual. Now, on second thought, I have decided...not. I still want to discuss it, but I want to do so at 'the festive board', as a philisophical discussion with like minded brethren over a glass of wine while at dinner after a degree ceremony. I don't want to seem like I'm entirely copping out here. To follow up on my previous post let me relay this anecdote. I remember when I was a newly raised Master Mason. I would attend each meeting and, while listening to the ceremony, become increasingly agitated with the material I was hearing. Oh yeah, sure, some of the ritual talks about high-minded ideas of moral precepts that are universal in nature. However, the bulk of it is highly repetitive and seemingly devoid of meaning. I would leave the meeting thinking, "Man, that's the stupidist t...

I am thinking about writing a few posts about Freemasonry. Yeah, I know I said I was bored with it, but I lied. If you came here looking for pictures of my family, well, come back a little later. I know some of my Freemason friends drop by this blog and also that people who do web searches often find my posts so that is reason enough to continue. I just finished watching a documentary about Freemasonry that was on PBS. It was very good, but it also had Dan Brown's publicist making quite a big deal about how much Freemasonry will enter the consciousness of the world in the next year or so with his next book. At least they bothered to distinguish between the short lived Illuminati movement and American Freemasonry during the founding of this country. That helps. The reason I want to make these posts is because when I joined Freemasonry I had a ton of questions. I didn't feel comfortable asking my brethren because I didn't want to seem rude. I posted some messages on a couple ...

My friend Johnny Waitt started back up his web log today. His old one ( located here ) has been dead for quite some time. It's great to have Johnny blogging again! Finally, thanks for the comments on my last post about 'The Widow's Son' . I'm actually reading the series out of sequence, I haven't read the first volume yet but, obviously, I will! John, thanks for you comment and concern. Sure, I'm probably a little stressed, but I always feel stress. I'm just embarassed I'm not communicating well lately. But, hey, at least I'm saying something . I hope I can wrangle a business trip to Seattle this summer so we can spend some time together. I bet I can get my company to send me to the next Meltdown, I'll have to see when that is. To Mary (and the Widow's Son), thanks for your comment as well. I still think it is interesting how many modern Freemasons are also into RAW. I do have some thoughts about your not finding what you were looking for...

Wow, I'm so full of crap it's not funny. First I write a post claiming I'm bored, or at least have lost my obessesion for Freemasonry, and then I spend the rest of the day reading this book. I am a huge Robert Anton Wilson fan, but I haven't read anything of his for some time. When you first read RAW it kind of kicks you in the head. Then, I have to be honest, he starts to repeat himself a lot. He has a certain 'schtick' he likes to use and once you are used to it, it doesn't have the same impact it used to have. I tried reading his Illuminatus trilogy which is so popular but I could never get into it. The narrative didn't have any structure I could hold onto. It was as if the illusion of 'fiction' was just some thin skeleton on which to allow him to go off on diversionary topics that piqued his interest. I would enjoy bits of it, but could never get into the whole thing. I will read it all in time, but for now I'm sticking with this series....

Wow, I need to redact my previous blog entry of earlier today. I received some quick comments and, upon rereading my post, I realize it doesn't come across with the tone in which I intended it to have. It was meant to be a light hearted commentary about how I always start out obsessed with a new hobby only to become bored with it in time. My obsession with Freemasonry has more or less run this same course but with one key distinction from previous obsessions. You see, since a product of my involvement with the institution was that I created a great many new friends and lasting relationships, these will not go away. These friendships bind me to the institution more strongly than any imagined 'deeper meanings' behind the craft. As far as my search for any esoteric meaning within Freemasonry, that comment was meant to be taken lightly. I was never a seeker when I joined Freemasonry because I am already quite happy in regards to my spiritual views. The only thing I was s...

Well, I've been a Freemason for well over a year now and the question in my mind is this; is the bloom off the rose? I have a bad habit of getting really interested in something, devoting massive amounts of time, energy, and thought into a topic, and then exhausting myself to the point that I become bored with it. My wife knows this is a pattern of mine and she accused me repeatedly of being 'obsessed' with Freemasonry in the past year. While I generally agreed with her I also argued 'this is different'. Well today, a little over a year later, she was right. I was obsessed with Freemasonry. I have become bored with it and it doesn't captivate me in the same way any more. I searched for the 'esoteric' in Freemasonry. I found nothing. I repeat, I have found absolutely nothing in any way, shape, or form, 'esoteric' about Freemasonry. I searched for mysterious rituals and illuminating experiences. I didn't find much of that either. I se...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II You can view the entire video in three segments from this link . There is a conspiracy here. Why was this not reported, or shown, in the popular press? And, the biggest conspiracy of all, why didn't the audience laugh? Were they simply too shocked to sit in the same room with the President while he was being roasted more thoroughly than has happened in the history of the Presidency of the United States? This is a work of genius. It is absolutely brilliant. It is hysterically funny. The saddest part of the video is that the audience is either too afraid, or too dull witted, to laugh at this brilliant skewering. I have been a big fan of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. In fact, I still watch it every evening. However, a big part of what made the 'Daily Show' so funny was the correspondents. Now that his best correspondents have all left and gone onto their own careers the show isn't as biting, on average, as it used to be. However...