This picture is of a large meeting room in the Grand Masonic Lodge of the Freemasons here in New York. All of the other meeting rooms are smaller, and have measurements determined to be of the same proportion to rooms within Solomon's Temple. The building is a very strange place, full of remarkable and mysterious history.
I met with the head of one freemasons' lodge this past wednesday for donuts. We'd been in contact since I first took a tour of the Lodge building during Open House New York (a yearly event where you get to go cool places you couldn't normally go). We met at the lodge, and talked for over 3 hours. He told me about his life, and about Freemasonry - well, except the stuff he couldn't talk about. That's the most entertaining part about these guys. They're great, and affable, and they continually drop hints of there being secrets they have which you can't know. It's kind of a lot of fun.
Now I have my reasons for considering getting involved, most of which stem from the idea of accomplishing more charity work in congress with one of the largest charity organizations around, and from what they have to say about self-improvement. But I'd be a liar - and you'd know I was - if I said I also didn't love the mysterious ways and history. I mean, c'mon. Name a major male figure in American history, and most likely that person was, or had ties to, freemasonry. Ben Franklin assisted in Voltaire's induction. These guys are old school.
We'll see what happens.
1 comment:
many of the men in my family (on dad's side...including my father) are freemasons. it's an incredibly interesting group--i think you'd fit right in:) (ps: miss you)
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