The North Carolina Mason

March/April 2017 The North Carolina Mason Page 5 Billy and Bob were neighbors and friends for many years. eir kids grew up together. ey worshipped in the same place. Hunting, fishing, and family cookouts were a huge part of their relationship. ey did not work at the same place, but they served in the same rural volunteer fire department. One hot summer day, Billy was lying on his back in a tight space doing some work on the engine of the fire truck. Bob was handing him the tools. Billy asked for a screwdriver. Bob made a serious mistake. Instead of handing Billy the screwdriver so that he could "handle it by the handle," Bob gave Billy the screwdriver "working end first." When Billy crawled out from beneath the fire truck, he went home after aiming a few choice words at his neighbor. Bob said some "choice words," too, and no effort was made to heal the relationship in due and timely fashion. Billy and Bob instructed their families not to have anything else to do with their neighbors, and the relationship between the families died. e breach in their relationship continued for 15 years. It was anything but excellent until someone who had simply had enough of it finally said, "I understand how you feel, but so much has changed. Your kids have grown up. You are now old men. Will you handle the rest of your life like you've handled the last 15 years?" I had no idea what would happen next. Would they be angry with me? Would their relationship get worse? I was less than 30 years old and I was not a Mason. Both men decided it was time to get over their 15-year misunderstanding. Billy was the first one to apologize. Billy was a Mason. After their reconciliation, for the rest of their lives, their relationship was an excellent example of brotherly love and affection. e lesson I learned from being the pastor in this Billy-Bob situation was that too often, people get stuck in the past. Sometimes, we talk about it so much that years pass, opportu- nities are lost, and futures are sacrificed on the altars of anger and pride. Upon reflection, I also learned that when a Mason leads, excellent results are on the horizon. e Lion and Pillar Lodge of Excellence will be a lasting opportunity for us in North Caro- lina to get a handle on education, patriotism, philanthropy, masonic membership, and ways we can connect in our communities sharing the light of brotherly love and affection. It is an excellent opportunity to heal broken relationships that have no place in our frater- nity. It allows us to move beyond longstanding misunderstandings. We can see the wonderful changes that have happened over the years not as criticism but as challenges and opportunities to do nobler deeds, think higher thoughts, to produce greater achievements. How will we discover the ways we can handle the opportunities and challenges before us? It begins with this response: Let's talk. Let's listen to each other. Let's be Masons. And then … Let's go to work! Let's Go to Work! Getting unstuck from the past By A. Gene Cobb Jr. Grand Master contact them by email directly, rather just a generic editor@ thelocalnewspaper address. And if you know someone who knows someone at the paper, USE THAT CONNECTION! 7. As you work to promote Wilkerson College and Davie Academy within your lodge, you might need some background info. Check this out: http://www. wilkersoncollege.com and http://grandlodge-nc.org/ william-r-davie-academy. All events, curriculum info and ticket info are on those pages. 8. Need help? Call me. Email me. I don't bite. Well, almost never. I am more than glad to help you out. As editor of the Mason, I'm delighted that you care so much about what we run and that you send in news, and keep me posted on stories. It makes my day to hear from you. I'm not just saying that. I learn more with every conver- sation. And as I have learned already – Freemasonry is not a spectator sport. You all work hard and I want folks to know how dedicated you are to this craft, to your brothers and to our three charities, MHCO, WhiteStone and the Masonic Foundation. Now go out there and gather your news! We all look forward to reading it! EDITOR, from page 4 A friendly reminder about photos in lodge By the Board of Custodians Most of us have a camera in our pocket. And we love to use it. We encourage Masons to shoot photographs of lodge activities for their social media pages and share them with the Grand Lodge for our pages. We love to see photos of installations, fund- raisers, work days, dinners, degree teams – everything that you do … Except degree work. We're seeing more photos from degree conferrals, especially the outdoor degrees. As a friendly reminder, this carries the same potential penalty as writing out our ritual and we offer this reminder for those who may not be familiar with Reg. 86-2.9 in our Code. It's easy to get excited seeing a friend receive his degrees. But photographing the presentation of aprons and working tools and the delivery of lectures and charges is prohibited. A good rule of thumb is to keep the camera in your pocket from the time the degree begins until the lodge is closed. Photos of candidates may be taken after meetings. Acceptable photos during lodge meet- ings or at the Grand Master's district meetings include special presentations both east and west of the altar for service awards, charitable donations to our homes/foundation and any other special recognitions. Of course, photos during open installations and public ceremonies are fine. Above all, we ask you to use common sense and don't photograph anything that you or your lodge wouldn't be doing in public.

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