Inspiration

January sees the start of the year with new officers and a new group of men ready to assume the duties of caring for the lodge.

Carl Claudy, around 1921, published a series of talks later called the "Old Tiler's Talks," which would later reach publication in a volume of thirty-one of Claudy's hand-picked selections in a volume for publication.

It is in that respect that I look to the Old Tiler's Talk called "Gift of the Magi." In it, a young brother speaks with incredulity to the grizzled Old Tiler that a "Brother Smith" approached him with the possibility of serving as Junior Steward for the year.  The Tiler called it "natural and reprehensible," and assumed the Young Brother said "yes." Unfortunately, this was not the case.  The Young Brother asked why it was "natural and reprehensible" for Brother Smith to ask the Young Brother to serve as Junior Steward, and why he should have taken the position.

The grizzled Old Tiler sees this as an opportunity to take the Young Brother to the foot of the learning tree.

"It Is natural for men to ask their friends if they want office. It is reprehensible, because Masonry in lodge practice is not supposed to have any politics. An election is supposed to be like a wen, something that just grows without any previous warning or conversation!

The Old Tiler then asks why the Young Brother didn't want to take the position of Junior Steward.  The Young Brother responds quite readily.

Why, Old Tiler, you know well enough why not! I have heard you talk before about the responsibilities of office. An officer has to serve at least seven years before he gets to the East in this lodge. He has to learn degrees and attend meetings and go to all funerals and visit the sick and labor instructing candidates and I don't know what all besides. Why should I run my head into any such noose as that? What does the officer get out of it, anyway? Nothing but fifty dollars' worth of squares and compasses to hang on a blue ribbon on his coat and for the rest of his life have some Master say, 'You are cordially invited to a seat in the East!' Not for me, thank you!"

The Old Tiler then explains the purpose of the office, and explains why the Young Brother wasn't quiet ready to assume the honor of serving at the junior end of the line.

"The lodge looks upon the election to the junior end of the line as a signal honor. In all probability, the man elected Junior Steward this year will be the Master seven years hence. At least he can be, if he has ability and love for Masonry and sticks to his job. So the lodge feels that in saying to a brother 'you may be a Master in seven years; at least, we will trust you to try, as we will try you in trust,' it is paying him the greatest compliment outside of an actual election to the East which it can pay. As betrothal is to marriage, so is election to the foot of the line to the Mastership.

 ''To be Master of a lodge is a position of responsibility. It means work. It means effort. It means trials. It means difficulty. But it also means much in education, in assurance on one's feet, in knowledge of character and strength of will and wit. Being Master brings great rewards, of which your 'fifty dollars' worth of gold' is but the symbol, not the substance.

"But we all make mistakes, and Brother Smith and I both made one. When he asked me about you, I said you had good stuff in you. So he spoke to you, but you don't want to bring it out for the lodge. That's your business. It was our error. So we will take the better man.''

''Why . . . Why didn't you take the better man in the first place?'' asked the New Brother.

"Oh, we didn't know he was the better man until you told us so. You had concealed it from us. We thought you had Master's quality in you. Willingness to serve, love of your fellows, desire to be something in Masonry for what it will do for you and what you can do for others; these make a Master's quality. But we were mistaken." 

I bold those two statements because I didn't really quite understand what I was getting into when I assumed the office of Senior Steward last year.  I didn't understand the "education" I received in learning how to prepare a table for a group of men.  I only grudgingly understood the good-natured ribbing that I got was a preparation for that which I would endure one day in other stations.

There's something to be said for at least a year's worth of education in the Masonic School of Hard Knocks.

Every man who serves in the line at Rockford, from the Worshipful Master on down to the Junior Steward knows when we were approached with the gift of being offered a position in the line, it was an honor.  It was the lodge recognizing we had a Master's qualities.  All of us are appreciative of that gift bestowed upon us by the lodge, and while we may at the lower levels not fully understand everything required of us, we are all committed to the lodge and furthering its tradition of being a place "Where Masons Meet, Work Well Together, And Have Fun."

Yours,
Bro. Chris Seaton
Junior Warden