That was really quite a post I made yesterday..
That was really quite a post I made the other day. Today I received a comment from my good friend Right Worshipful Brother Bill McGuire and it made me realize I needed to clarify.
In my post I was trying to make one very specific point. The point I was trying to make is simply that a lot of the stuff we do in Freemasonry does, in fact, involve both memorizing and performing ritual. Most importantly I wanted to make clear that while at first this might not sound like something you would want to actually do that, often times, it turns out that you quite enjoy it. In Bill's comment he reminded me that I didn't stress enough a big part of why doing that ritual is fun. It is fun because you are building bonds of trust and friendship with honorable men that end up lasting a lifetime.
I have often told the story that I joined Freemasonry largely in hopes of making new friends in the community. And, in that goal I succeeded wildly. I agree with Brother Bill's comments and I would like emphasize that the fellowship we find in performing the ritual is a major part of the appeal.
On another note, my post took a damned long time to finally talk about Freemasonry. I talked about an artist, a ghost, belief systems, and quantum physics. I'm sorry, I have a lot on my mind lately. Every now and then I go through a phase were I read a lot of books. I also recently became involved with a new group of friends and I wanted to touch on that as well.
Today I went to see my father who has terminal liver cancer. He's struggling with this health crisis and the whole family is trying to help him out. Here Freemasonry has helped me a lot. I won't get into details but a lot of our cermony addresses the issue of mortality and I honestly believe it helps you come to better terms with it. That, and attending Masonic funerals where you honor a life well lived, and you become more comfortable with this important process in life. I hope my father lives for a long time to come and I hope he is able to enjoy what life he has left. That has been on my mind as well.
Finally, I got good news yesterday that I will be presenting at the Game Developers Conference in March of next year. This is a great honor and I am looking forward to communicating some useful information in my presentation.
I hope my posts about random thoughts rattling through my fractured mind don't offend any one. Sometimes I do a stream-of-consciousness thing and I realize some of it might best be kept out of the public eye.
I promise I will post some pictures of fluffy bunnies soon to balance out the weirdness.
Comments
The movie itself is nothing to speak of. If it were just a movie, you'd probably go once, say "That was pretty lame", and never see it again. But add the rituals of memorizing the witty retorts, ensuring you get the timing right with the script, ensuring your bring the proper props and use them at the right time, once you 'graduate' to the point of being on stage, memorizing the right time and place to hold your finger so the projected lightning electrocutes you, you get years of enjoyment. I think I finally got bored with it after going 4 years, pretty much once or twice a week for the midnight showing. I still remember most of the dialog, even 15 years since I've stopped going.
Probably a different target audience, but probably appealing for many of the same reasons.