Gaylord Z. Thomas, 32°
1212 Tanglewood Trace, O'Fallon, Illinois 62269–3111
zeeby@shrineclowns.com

Masonry is basically a course in self-improvement.

Many times, I've heard Masonry is like your wallet—you won't get anything out of it unless you put something into it. Isn't the same true of any self-improvement avenue or even the latest diet fad? If you don't work at it, it won't work for you. Pretty simple, but there is a lot of truth in that wallet analogy.

Let me clarify. First, I say Masonry is a self-improvement medium simply because our stated purpose is to "make good men better." Masonry, like profit-making books and seminars of the day that help people to self-improve, has the individual start by getting in touch with himself. It is important to know where you want to go in life, but it is more important, even critical, to know where you are, for that is your starting point. Just ask any navigator. If he doesn't know where he is when he starts, that's the first thing he will determine, or, by definition, he is lost. If you don't know where you are, you won't know which direction to go to reach whatever goal you set.

It is of key importance to know what makes us tick and what is important to us if we are to get the direction we need and seek for ourselves. To go in a direction with our lives that isn't consistent with our own core set of values is only fooling ourselves and will not yield the success we are seeking.

In Masonry, we start with the Entered Apprentice Degree, or do we? Don't we really expect the foundation, a "good man," to already exist? Furthermore, by virtue of this man coming to us of his own free will and accord (rather than us asking him to come learn our lessons), we assume he has wrestled with himself to a certain "degree" already.

We charge the Entered Apprentice with his duties to his God, his neighbor, and himself. In reality, he has already come to grips with his belief system, and the Masonic impression about his God will be simply an enhancement of his present faith. As well, we've accepted him among us through the ballot box, so he is "a good man" to begin with by general recognition. Thus his duties to his neighbors are probably also on a very solid foundation. The real focus he should take should be on his duties to himself—to improve himself—and, in so doing, he might actually become a better member of his faith, family, and community.

Did you ever wonder why some people have favorite Degrees they repeatedly like to participate in or witness? While the first three Craft Degrees provide a solid way of life for Masons, the 4th through 32nd Degrees of the Scottish Rite provide additional light on certain lessons about specific things such as duty, honesty, benevolence, justice, charity, education, patriotism, toleration, knowledge, wisdom, and so on. This favoritism toward certain Degrees relates to each man's own set of values.

So, let's turn our attention back to that wallet. When you heard the phrase "You won't get anything out of it, if you don't put something into it," weren't you, let's be honest, thinking of money? Money is the epitome of an external qualification. In contrast, Masonry regards a man more for internal, not external, qualities. Look in your wallet. What do you find in those various little pockets and "hidden" compartments? What do you see aside from credit cards, which are just an extension of money?

You likely see pictures of your family or home—those persons and things really important to you. You may have a slip of paper with a favorite quotation, a vacation memento, a lucky coin, or a treasured ticket stub. You may have just about anything, including, of course, your Masonic dues cards. Why? Because these things are important to you.

No two wallets will have the same things in them because no two men are the same, have the same needs, and think exactly the same way. What is important to each of us differs from man to man. Masonry gives us the "tools" to help us reach our own goals, to improve to be the man each of us, deep down, wants to be. The way each of us reaches our different goals will, of necessity, be different, and this is at the root of why no one man can speak for all of Masonry. No two Masonic journeys, or wallets, can ever be the same.

Gaylord Z. Thomas is a Major in the USAF and currently the Chief of the Training Branch, Office of the Inspector General, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Illinois. A member of Branchville Lodge No. 496, Branchville, Indiana, and the Guthrie Scottish Rite Bodies, Guthrie, Oklahoma, Bro. Thomas, known as "Zeeby," is the Webmaster and Membership Chairman for the International Shrine Clown Association.