Like many people, I have to catch a quick meal at an airport between flights from time to time. It was during such a meal recently, that I became aware of all the substitutes. The table was crowded with them. There were packets of substitute sugar, substitute salt, substitute cream—coffee "whitener" they called it—and a little tub of substitute butter. The menu included a hamburger with substitute meat and a chocolate pie with substitute chocolate, topped with substitute whipped cream. Each substitute touted that it was lower in calories than what it was substituting for, yet still "like" the real thing it was attempting to imitate.

Increasingly, we live in a substitute world. On television, talking pundits substitute for the hard news and analysis which was once the pride and glory of reporters. In our schools, activities intended to promote a "good self-image" are often substituted for real education. In popular entertainment, splinters of untrained talent often substitute for the years of hard work and training which once went into making a performer. And you need only pick up a newspaper to see that many politicians are using substitute ethics.

The essence of a substitute society and world is that things are "good enough." Substitute sweetner tastes "like sugar." (It doesn't.) Low-fat spreads melt "almost like butter." (They don't.) Spin passes as integrity. (It isn't.) Infatuation poses as love. (It can never be.) "Good enough" just isn't good enough.

Would it be "good enough" to have a military which is "almost victorious"? Or a doctor who is "almost skillful"? A banker who is "almost honest"? A judge, mayor, governor, or president who is "almost honorable"? Do we want our children and grandchildren to grow up "almost knowing right from wrong"? Will we be content if we can "almost trust" our friends? Is self-interest a good enough substitute for compassion and charity?

For me, at least, the answer is "No." And that is where Masonry enters the picture.

It always amuses me when my non-Mason friends tell me that Masonry isn't the real world. Masonry IS the real world; the rest is substitute. Masonry teaches real ethics and morality, based on the real experience of generations over centuries. Masonry insists men and women have real obligations to each other, based on the fact that they are all children of God. Masonry advances real integrity as the cornerstone of a truly successful life. Masonry underlines friendship and brotherhood as real forces in the world. Freemasonry maintains that isolation and only "looking out for #1" are never "good enough." It teaches the profoundly real lesson that, as Albert Pike said: "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we do for others and for the world is immortal."

Masonry has real toleration for the ideas and opinions and beliefs of others. It teaches that the world of ideas and thoughts and values is real, and not a myth. You need only look at the history of human warfare and persecution to see where a lack of sound ideals can lead.

The brightly colored packets of substitutes for sugar, salt, cream, and butter may have some useful value, even if they are only good enough and "almost like" the real thing. Substitutes for honor, love, truth, compassion, integrity, justice, mercy, toleration, and brotherhood, no matter how attractively packaged, do not.
Welcome to the real world, the world of Freemasonry!