Jim Tresner, Grand Cross

Summer brings many joys to me, but one of the strongest is a refreshed love of iced tea. We think of iced tea as something which has “always been around,” but nay, not so. In the days of my early youth, it was rare. Many eateries did not offer it at all, and none offered it except in high summer. The home refrigerators of the time made very little ice and made it slowly. My grandmother learned to make iced tea, though, and to keep it from turning cloudy. One of my earliest memories of my grandfather is of him sitting at the dining room table, a glass of iced tea lifted to the light, and saying, “It’s perfect, Mary. It shines as bright as honor.”

George F. Jones, Honor Bright: Honor in Western Literature, Savannah: Frederic C. Beil, Published 2000, ISBN 1-929490-02-X 214 pages, hardbound, cover price $19.95, available on the Internet new and used starting at about $15.00.

I really like this book! Mr. Jones begins with an excellent preface making the point that the same word, honor, has meant very different things at different times, and that we must guard against the assumption that we know those meanings. He then has a very good discussion of “shame culture” (a culture, such as ancient Rome, in which men avoided evil acts to avoid the public shame which would result) and “guilt culture” (introduced by Christianity in which one avoided evil not to escape public scorn but in order to escape divine judgment). Both continue to play a role in our thinking. Jones traces the idea through history and through examples from literature, showing us how the concept of honor has changed and evolved, and how it has been modified by cultural norms and understandings. It’s a rich and fascinating book, and one every Mason should read. It would be, literally, an honorable thing to do.

Wallace McLeod, AM, PhD, The Quest for Light: Masonic Essays of Wallace McLeod (2nd revised edition) Lancaster, VA: Anchor Communications, LLC, 2004, softbound, 287 pages, ISBN 0-935633-34-0, cost $24.95 + $4.95 postage and handling. Please order from Anchor Communications LLC, 5266 Mary Ball Road, Lancaster, VA 22503, or call 1-888-231-8506.

For many readers, it’s enough to know that Bro. Wallace McLeod wrote the book. He is, past question, the best writer in the field of Masonry alive today. His style is clean and lucid, and his insights are profound. For those who do not know, Dr. McLeod was Grand Abbot of the Blue Friars from 1991 to 2004. Bro. Wallace named Bro. S. Brent Morris, 33°, GC, Grand Abbot as of March 28, 2004. The Blue Friars is an international society of Masonic writers. The “Blue” represents Freemasonry, and “Friars,” derived from the Latin word Frater, meaning “Brother,” also alludes to the monks in the Middle Ages who kept scholarship alive by copying and thus preserving the surviving written records of classic Greece and Rome. Brother McLeod’s Masonic and academic credentials are literally too long to list here, but it’s safe to say you will never see a more truly impressive Masonic resumé.

The book is a collection of essays, with such titles as “The Credibility Gap in Masonic Ritual,” “The Universality of Freemasonry,” “The Evolution of the Ritual,” “Masonic Symbols––Their Use and Abuse,” and many more. In addition to great scholarship and writing, there is a dry wit which sparkles through the pages like sugar crystals or ground glass (and it can be both). This is a great book to own and a very thoughtful book to give a friend as a gift.

David L. Gray, Inside Prince Hall, 2003, Australian and New Zealand Masonic Research Council, North American Edition 2004, Lancaster, Virginia: Anchor Communications, LLC, soft-bound, 218 pages, maps & graphs, ISBN 0-935633-32-4 cost $24.95 + $4.95 postage and handling. Same ordering information as for Brother McLeod’s book above.

Brother Gray has written an important book. There has been little information available on Prince Hall Masonry and its development. Inside Prince Hall meets this need nicely in a balanced and informative manner. The maps and charts are especially helpful in understanding the spread and development of Prince Hall Masonry and the permutations of the ritual, as well as the interrelationships between the various Prince Hall Grand Lodges, which can be a little confusing sometimes. Particularly if you are interested in the history of Freemasonry and the way Freemasonry has interacted with the history of the United States, you need this book in your library.

Jim Tresner, Valley of Guthrie, Okla., is the Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute; Editor of The Oklahoma Mason, Member of the Steering Committee, Masonic Information Center; Director of Work in Guthrie; and author, among other books, of Albert Pike: The Man Beyond the Monument and Vested in Glory: The Regalia of the Scottish Rite. Contacts: Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 1019, Guthrie OK 73044; Tel. 405-282-3212; Fax 405-282-3244; okmasonmag@hotmail.com