Gary Leazer, 32°
P.O. Box 870523, Stone Mountain, Georgia 30087-0014
garyleazer@mindspring.com

Happiness comes from a person's belief that he or she is a part of a process or plan that extends beyond one's own needs and goals.

In preparing for a lecture in a philosophy class at Mercer University, I focused on the question, "What is happiness?" For most of us, happiness rests in our job, which too often we lose, in our loved ones, whom the Great Architect calls to rest, in our health, which ultimately fails us.

I have watched my 19-year-old son struggle with the direction he should take in life. I feel his sense of vagueness and restlessness, his wanting to go somewhere but not knowing which way, his wanting to do something but not knowing what. I have tried to help him see that happiness in life does not rest in a job or a person, that sometimes we just have to launch out on faith into the great, unknown future.

One of the givens in life is that we make mistakes or take roads that we discover were not the right ones for us. But, I am convinced that we do not have to endure life as a long race we have no choice in running, but that every day of our lives can be lived with a sense of joy, freedom, and happiness.

Ill. J. Rha McCleskey, Jr., 33°, 1932-2002	Ill. Earl D. Harris, 33°, 1947-2002

Philosophers enjoy abstract thinking; they think differently than most of us normal people. Craig Kubias, who teaches philosophy and religion at Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina, is an unusual philosopher. He takes what is abstract and puts it into words that we can more easily understand. He is a true scholar- one who takes the difficult and makes it not so difficult.

Kubias defines happiness as a person's belief that he/she is a part of a process or plan that extends beyond one's own needs and goals, that will have a positive impact on other people's lives, and that will continue after death.

Happiness, in my opinion, requires the need to belong to something greater than ourselves. It could be faith in God, or a social or political movement, or an organization such as Freemasonry. All of these possibilities can give us the feeling of being part of something greater than ourselves.

Within our own circle of friends and family, we can have a visible impact. But many people feel a desire to "do something more" with their lives. They want to make a difference by leaving the world in better shape than they found it. What "do something more" means specifically, Kubias says, will vary from person to person.

I am convinced that happiness comes to us only when we move beyond meeting our own personal needs, when we give to others a part of ourselves. That is what we do as Brothers in Freemasonry.

Belonging and giving of ourselves to a community, such as Freemasonry, helps us feel connected to something greater than ourselves. To know that what we do will have an effect beyond our immediate circle of acquaintances adds to our sense of happiness.

At the Grand Lodge of Georgia last October, we remembered two giants in Georgia Masonry: R.W. J. Rha McCleskey, Jr., 33°, Deputy Grand Master, and M.W. Earl D. Harris, 33°, P.G.M. and S.G.I.G. in the Orient of Georgia. Both were called from labor to rest last summer.

I remember the last time I saw these Brothers was at the May 2002 meeting of the Eastside Scottish Rite Association in Conyers. Brother McCleskey spoke to the group. I sat next to Brother Harris. He gave me his door prize ticket, saying the S.G.I.G. shouldn't have been given a ticket. The ticket he gave me was the winner. I took my wife the door prize, a box of chocolates. There is not a Georgia Mason who will not say to himself on more than one occasion, "I wish Brother Harris were still alive. He knew the Code better than almost anyone."

The lives of these two Brothers live beyond them. I wonder what positive impact Brother McCleskey would have had on the Grand Lodge of Georgia as Grand Master this year. He influenced so many of us. People wanted to be close to both of these Freemasons. Happiness showed on their faces.

Happiness comes to us when we understand we are a part of something bigger than ourselves, that we can make a difference in our world, and that what we do today will make a difference in our world after we are gone. Brethren, being a Mason is one of the better ways we can find happiness.

Author's note: I want to thank Craig Kubias for the wisdom he shared in his article, "A Modest Proposal: A Religious Definition of Happiness."

The above article is reprinted with permission from the CIS Masonic Report (Vol. 7, No. 4; March 2003), a publication of the Center for Interfaith Studies, Inc., which is edited by Bro. Leazer. Annual subscriptions ($15.00) are available by using the contact information above or calling 770-979-1687.

Gary Leazer served 14 years on the staff of the Interfaith Witness Department of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board before his involuntary resignation in October 1993. His primary responsibilities included research, writing, and conferencing in 40 states and four foreign countries on interfaith issues. Leazer, not then a Mason, conducted the original study on Freemasonry for the Southern Baptist Convention. Bro. Leazer began the Masonic Report in March 1995 as a supplement to his CIS (Center for Interfaith Studies) Quarterly Report. He was raised a Master Mason on February 8, 1997, in Clarkston Lodge No. 492, Clarkston, Georgia (Master this year), and became a Scottish Rite Mason in the Valley of Atlanta in 1997. He was a participant in the 1994 and 1996 Scottish Rite Leadership Conferences and is a frequent speaker at Scottish Rite and other Masonic meetings.