Where Have All the Past Masters Gone?

With apologies to Pete Seeger

Where have all the Past Masters gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the Past Masters gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the Past Masters gone?
Tired and resting, every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

One thing we have all noticed is that after a year (or two... or three) that the master of a lodge vanishes like a puff of smoke as soon as, or coincidental with, the installation of a replacement... not to be seen for some time, if ever again. What has happened to them?

For those brothers, and non members, who have never had the pleasure/responsibility/duty of sitting in the east and shouldering the burden of leading the work, let me share with you some of the burdens, and joys, of being master of a lodge.The first thing one must consider is that the job is essentially a full time one, in addition to your regular job and your responsibility to your family. On top of that, it is unpaid, volunteer work, sought out for, mostly, the joy of serving your brethren.

Just GETTING to the east is a strict task. As the Junior Warden (one the three principle leaders of the lodge), your provenance is providing the food, snacks, meals, coffee and so on during your year, serving as Acting Master during the conferral of the first degree (including a 20 minute lecture that must be memorized), and serving on various boards and committees in lodge. As Senior Warden, you are the head candidates coach, as often as not on the temple and finance boards, as well as organizing and planning your year in the east, and serving as Acting Master during the conferral of all second degrees and filling in for the master in his (albeit rare) absences.

Then you are invested master of your lodge. The ceremony of installation is fairly impressive, but it is not really until you are asked to swear to abide by a list of about 15 additional duties as master that it really begins to sink in that YOU are the master of the lodge, and it is to YOU that the brethren will be looking for at least the next year. Then they hand you the gavel, and present you to the brethren:

"Worshipful Master, behold your brethren. Brethren, behold your Worshipful Master."

WHAM, oops, you are really the leader now, you are THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER. You worked for this, you memorized the work and fulfilled the expectations of your brethren and have now been elected MASTER, for good or ill, of the lodge. Like most men, at some point you think: Please g-d, don't let me screw up as you step into those shoes, filled by so many brothers before you.

The good news is: Freemasonry is ritual bound, and designed to make it hard to change... or to mess up. As master, YOU are the final word in the lodge, only the Grand Master (and to a certain, lesser extent, the District Deputy Grand Master) can overrule you, and neither will do so unless you REALLY mess it up. You have (if you are really lucky) a cadre of past masters around who will give you advice (just try and stop them) and assist you (and impede you). But, as General MacArthur noted to his command staff, you can't PUSH string, you have to pull it along to get it anywhere.

This applies to the lodge as well. As master, you are the elected leader, and it is your duty to set the tone, give the craft good instructions whereby they may pursue their labors, and in general guide the lodge. To lead, however, you must have the consent and assistance of those you are leading. As Master, you are also the chief confessor, counselor, entertainment coordinator, degree planner, supervisor of the work, whipping boy and chief cook and bottle washer.

As master, you are expected to attend the will of the past masters, the Grand Master, the brethren (and occasionally) their wives. You must attend EVERY SINGLE FUNCTION in your district to "show the flag" for the lodge, even if you are not a member, and of course, fend off all the "suggestions" that you join every appendant and concordant body along the way. That you must attend every meeting of the lodge goes without saying (you CANNOT be sick, you are the master). You must attend every meeting of the "Officer's Association (for my European Brothers, that's a kind of Lodge of Instruction, only more structured), you have to schedule lodge practices (and make and lead those with the Officer's Coach), you must attend all funerals, run the business meetings, attend the building (temple) board and finance committee meetings, oh, and somewhere in all that, maintain your family relationship while earning a living.

Oh, yeah, and one minor irritant you have to put up with are the PMs who DO manage to come to lodge complaining about how "it wasn't done that way when I was master" and suggestions from all sides. By the end of a year, you KNOW you have been master, and will for the rest of your life wear that PM at the end of your name as an appellation indicating that you stood up and counted.

But, by the end of that year, you are bone, dead, stone tired. You need a break, you WANT a break, you DESERVE a break, but the lodge needs you on some committee or in some chair... and of course, your wife and children are asking you who you are when you get home from work... and we wonder why some Master's run away as fast and as far as they can from the lodge for a while, to catch their breath and find themselves!

And here is another reason: its a kind of post traumatic stress disorder. Like the soldiers in Iraq or Viet Nam found out when they came home, one minute in a combat zone and the next home with your family... as Master, one minute, you are the center of the lodge and your phone seemingly won't stop ringing... then you install the new master, and no one so much as calls to so much as see how you are doing because they didn't see you at lodge the other night...

I speak from experience my brothers! I loved my time in the east, despite all the challenges, and when the opportunity presents itself to me again, I will gladly take on the burden of leading my lodge, because the REWARDS of being a past master exceed all the gold in the world, when a brother looks you in the eye and says: Good to meet you, worshipful.

There can be no greater reward in this life.

May the blessings of heaven rest upon us and all regular masons. May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue, cement us!