Brothers: Things have been a bit slow for me lately, so I thought I'd
introduce you to a couple of folks I've gotten to know very, very well
in a very short period of time.
Tony and Hilary are the resident sadists at a local Phoenix
physical rehabilitation facility. At the moment, they are taking
unusual pleasure in giving me unusual pain as they find new ways to
rehabilitate some recalcitrant muscles and bones in my right shoulder.
(I have a whole host of other folks working on my legs at the moment.
More later about those sadistic sons....but I digress...)
It seems there is a vicious circle at work here. Because the
shoulder generated a high degree of pain, I chose to favor the other
arm. The less I used the bad arm, the tighter it became, thus
generating greater pain on those few occasions when I did attempt to use
it. The more it hurt, the less I used it. You can see where this is
going.
So now we face the painful task of getting the thing working
again, and Dr. Jykle and Miss Hyde-very nice young people after hours,
I'm sure-are in charge of the task. I participate out of necessity and
for the honor of the thing.
In between bursts of sudden pain, designed to hold my attention,
I think I've discovered a symbolic meaning. I certainly hope so. I
would not want to endure this simply to be able to deal crooked card
games again. (Or play the piano. I couldn't play before, either, but
you never know.)
Call it the Rust Equation. If you don't use something, it
rusts, locks up and becomes hard to manipulate. That applies to tools,
shoulders, organizations and minds.
You're probably seen this at work, yourself. If your lodge
hasn't done degree work in several months or even years, you know what
happens. If you don't pay attention to the Brothers in the line, those
on committees and in other activities, things start to freeze up. It
becomes almost impossible to get the thing moving again.
If you haven't taken time to follow the dictates of Fellowcraft
Degree-self education and improvement-your mind begins to lock up, or at
least become considerably narrower. It's impossible to examine new
ideas when that happens. You just can't get your arms around them, or
your mind, either, for that matter.
We run that risk in Freemasonry, I think. Ours is an ancient
and honorable Craft, with histories, traditions and manners far older
than any Brother. If we would avoid the Rust Equation, we must make all
these things new again.
I'm not suggesting that we change a thing, nor am I espousing
any particular cause or issue. That would require a mind far more
agile than mine. I am suggesting that we must renew our own enthusiasm,
that we must recover our own initial, first-time delight and excitement
in Masonry and the discovery of its beautiful philosophy. As one still
young in our Craft, I discover something new about Masonry nearly each
day. I meet new Brothers, read new books, am challenged by new and
diverse points of view.
For me, the spirit of Freemasonry is a living thing and
it offers me new perspectives to consider each time I confront it. My
mind, if not my shoulder, is active and agile. It is highly unlikely,
I think, that the Great Architect will permit me to observe 50 years in
our Brotherhood. For those Brothers who do celebrate that momentous
occasion, I sincerely hope that their minds remain bright and that they
continue to discover or rediscover something new in our mysteries. I
hope they never allow themselves to lose that great joy of discovery or
take our work together for granted.
I'm not sure which is the most painful-a locked shoulder
or a locked mind. Tony and Hilary are fairly certain they can get my
shoulder moving again. I wonder, however, about the minds of those who
found new ideas too painful to consider and allowed their minds to
close. That must be far more painful, now that I think about it.
Incidentally, every so often, Tony muses that it would
be so much easier just to give my shoulder a shot of WD-40. This
apparently works well for most other old and rusty machinery. I remind
him that I'm not paying for stand-up comedy. He accuses me of being
narrow-minded. What can I say?
Skip Boyer, Paradise Valley #61Phoenix, AZ


