The Symbolic Teachings of a Mechanical Pocket Watch

By: Special Guest Contributor - Wor. Shawn Carrick

                                         (C) Michel Villeneuve - 1999

Masons are taught many different lessons throughout the three degrees of Masonry. Not only when we experienced them as a candidate, but also as we provide the degrees to the new Brothers and as we sit on the sideline. There are many items that are used to impress the lessons of Masonry upon our consciousness. One item that is not used to impress the lessons in our work but that I have embraced because of the lesson I believe it will teach, is the mechanical pocket watch.

Most recently a Brother shared his newly acquired Dudley Masonic pocket watch, and I started to think about all the movements and parts of a pocket watch which must occur together in unison for the dial to be able to provide the correct time.

The parts that compose the inner workings of the pocket watch are numerous, intricate, and dependent on each other. Looking at the diagram, we see that there is not just one or two gears, rather there are a number of gears, springs and other smaller parts working in unison. Each dependent on the other, no matter how large or small the part is. You may be asking what lesson might be taught to us from this simple and useful tool.

I believe that the pocket watch is emblematical of the Masonic Lodge, each part of the pocket watch contained within the walls of its case representing the membership of the Lodge. Just as the pocket watch has the numerous, different and unique parts working together, so a Lodge has its numerous members each one unique and different from each other yet working together to improve each other. This view is not to say that everyone has to be actively engaged in the lodge, as are the gears and springs of a pocket watch.

Rather, remember that the gears and springs are just two parts of the watch. In addition to the housing of the pocket watch, another part of the watch that we can relate back to the Lodge is the different plates that support the gears and springs. These plates are also emblematical of the members of the Lodge that are not actively involved with the workings of the Lodge at every meeting and event but are active in the background not always completely seen but providing the needed support and encouragement for the lodge and the membership to be able to function successfully.

There is also another teaching provided by the Pocket Watches inner parts. When the springs and gears of the pocket watch fail to work together in unison with the support of the plates, the pocket watch may begin to function less reliable as time passes on.  In the Lodge, when the members are not working together in unison the Lodge may similarly suffer and unlike a pocket watch with all its parts unable to leave from within its case, the same is not true of Lodge members in relation to the Lodge.

A successful Lodge is one that is able to reach its goals with each member of the Lodge working together in unison, combining those that are active and those that are being supportive, like that of a properly working pocket watch to ensure that the work is completed. I hope you will look at this tool and let it impact your consciousness as you consider how your Lodge is or is not similar to that of a proper working mechanical pocket watch.

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Wor. Shawn Carrick is Past Master of Red Wing Lodge No. 8 in Red Wing, MN, a member and Past Master of Montgomery Lodge #258 in St. Paul, MN, Scribe for Overseers Chapter No. 103 in Hastings and he is currently District 26 Representative for the Grand Lodge of Minnesota.

Wor. Carrick began his Masonic journey in 2006 thanks to a co-worker and the experience has taught him how to improving himself by the teachings of the Masonic degrees and Masonic writings that he has read. He believes that education in the Lodge is one of the most important aspects for a Brother to work on and to share in their Lodge’s as they travel and become even better men. 

Wor. Carrick lives in Red Wing, Minnesota with his wife and 2 sons.

If you would like to contribute to The Laudable Pursuit, please send articles or ideas to: Editor@TheLaudablePursuit.com

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Being a Father and a Freemason

By: Wor. Jason E. Marshall

                  My oldest son Jase playing with my "Masonic Superhero Stuff"

A few months ago when I came home from Lodge I snuck into my son’s room, like I always do, to check on them, tuck them back in, and give them a kiss on the forehead. As I bent down to kiss my oldest son’s forehead he woke up, smiled his big toothy smile, and asked “how was lodge?” I told him that Lodge was fine and that I got to see his Muncles (Masonic Uncles). He giggled and asked about a few of his favorites, but as I was about to turn and walk away, his face grew sad, his eyes began to tear up, and he said that he really missed me when I was at Lodge and my Masonic meetings, and he asked why would I rather be at Lodge than at home playing with him. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. We had a brief discussion about what Freemasonry means to me, and that I’m not choosing the Lodge over him, and that we all have activities that we do from time to time, and some of those activities can’t be done as a family. Luckily, he perked up and told me that when he grows up he’ll be a Freemason too, and then we can go to meetings together.

While that night ended on an upbeat note, it has really stuck with me, and it has made me really think hard about what Masonic activities I attend, or even agree to undertake.

Even though we are admonished as an EA that Freemasonry should not interfere with our family duties, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a member that has never spent a good bit more time at Lodge than his wife or kids would like. Finding balance between our Masonic and family duties and obligations can be extremely difficult, and this seems to be a constant topic on Masonic pages, forums, and websites. While every man must find that balance for himself, and it is no brother’s place to tell another how to divide or spend his time, it is important that we do take a few steps back from time to time to examine whether or not we have been rightly dividing our time, or if our 24 inch gauge has become skewed. I know for me what started as one Lodge meeting a night, and two weekends a year for the Scottish Rite (what I jokingly called my “Masonic National Guard Schedule”), has slowly but surely ballooned to several meetings and weekend activities a month.

While I have decided to be more selective in my Masonic activities, I am convinced that Freemasonry has made me a better man, husband and father. Our fraternity has given me the tools to not only better myself, but to be a better father to my children, and I will hopefully be able to subtly shape the ashlars of my sons throughout their childhood and beyond.

Freemasonry instructs us to be thoughtful, inquisitive, to be moral and upright in our dealings with others, and it teaches us to not only strive to better ourselves, but to also better those around us and society at large. These are extremely valuable lessons for a father to pass along to a son.

Freemasonry also allows me to spend time with men who help me be the best man that I can be, my brethren constantly challenge and support me, and my brethren have also become an important part in my children's lives. What my children call their "Muncles", are a whole set of positive male role models, which boys and young men desperately need, and which are too often in short supply.

I also believe that Freemasonry is a vehicle that I can use to build and pass my legacy on with. One of the main reasons for me initially joining the fraternity, was that both of my grandfathers were members, so I wanted to do something that would help me connect with them. Although they have both passed, one prior to me joining, I can’t help but feel a familial tie while performing ritual, or when I’m simply studying ritual late at night.

Above all for my children, I want to leave the legacy of a man who tried to be the best man that he could be, a man that loved his wife and his children, a man who was good and true to his friends and those in need, and a man that worked hard to help others. Essentially, I want to be remembered as a good father, and a good Freemason, and I’m glad that those two pivotal pieces of my life help refine and sharpen each other.

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Which Public Image Do We Claim?

By: Robert G. Davis, 33*, Grand Cross

I was visiting with a fellow Mason not long ago who was expressing how difficult it is for Freemasonry to articulate a public image which adequately describes our organization and is believable to the general public. This is indeed a remarkable challenge because we are bombarded with so many different perceptions about the fraternity. It seems there are many non-Masons willing to represent to the world what we are; without really knowing. The growing popularity of television documentaries, movies, and books about Freemasonry are filled with half truths, templar plots, inferred hostilities toward established religions; alleged infiltrations into the world’s most influential circles of government and elite centers of power. If this were not enough, the web is also filled with discussions asserting Masons to be extreme freethinkers unconstrained by civil authority or law.

The bane of being of the secret society tradition is that Freemasonry is constantly subjected to fanciful illusions of those who like to tell a good tale. And there are plenty of folk who are naïve enough to believe almost anything they hear.

The fact is that there are many public images regarding Freemasonry. It all depends on who you are reading and how you are reading it. There are those who choose to see a hostility between Freemasonry and religion; yet we live in a world with a huge and growing un-churched population. Many in this group perceive Freemasonry as an institution one can trust to openly and objectively discuss the tenets of all belief systems. There are those who see separation of church and state as hostile toward religion; but there are far more who agree with Freemasonry's position regarding the necessity of teaching a society to be watchful that the zealotry of faith does not restrict personal freedoms. There are those who see Freemasons as libertines; yet there are far more who see Masons as seekers of enlightenment within the historical norms of reason and judgment. There are those who call us conspirators against moral and civil authority; but far more who see, in Masons, community men with solid moral and ethical values. There are those who believe our secret society has sinister motives; but far more who are curious about our hidden treasure, our mystery, and the quest we make for that which is unknown except to an enlightened few.

We have something else that everyone respects, yet goes unnoticed by many who have nothing good to say about Freemasonry. We have family heritage. It can be suggested that more men have come into Masonry because someone in their family was a Mason than any other reason for joining. We remember the heroes in our life. And we want to be like them. For men everywhere, that is a far more powerful reason to belong than any web-discussion, tel-evangelizing, or idle commentary of the blind catering to the ignorant is a reason for not belonging.

Surveys have shown that 10% of the population dearly loves us; 10% hate us; and the other 80% have no opinion about us at all. Methinks this puts us in the driver's seat in terms of our opportunity to have an impact or "spin" on our own image.

I have never for a moment had any second thoughts about the value and rightness of Freemasonry. But I have struggled agonizingly long over our institution's inertness to collectively put into practice what it teaches. The biggest weakness of our Order is that we have no way of organizing our strengths to collectively improve society in the name of Masonry. Perhaps this is why we have become more of a charitable organization than a fraternity, even to ourselves. It is easy to get behind a good cause. But we are not so sure how to be a highly valued moral voice for our society.

I’m not sure myself how we position the world’s oldest fraternity to be seen as one of the most respected voices of good judgment and right thinking. But I know image building starts with the example we each individually set for those who know us. And if we wish to project right example onto the corporate name of Freemasonry, our collective acts out in the world must at least match the instruction we receive within our lodges.

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