William Herbert "Skip" Boyer, 32°
15817 N. 6th Place, Phoenix, Arizona 85022-3060
Skip.Boyer@bestwestern.com

The element of fun is not a basic tenet of the Craft,
but I've always had the feeling it should be.

Bro. William Herbert "Skip" Boyer, 32°

The bumper sticker on the car inching along ahead of me, in the inappropriately named rush-hour traffic, proclaimed "Let's put the fun back in dysfunctional!" Having plenty of time to consider that admonition, I arrived at the conclusion that this bit of bumper sticker philosophy had a certain twisted logic. However, it doesn't go far enough. We need to put the fun back into everything from the workplace to Freemasonry.

Consider the workplace.

I used to have a small sign that hung above my computer. It read, "Thou shalt not take thyself too damned seriously." I take my job and the work I do seriously. But the actual "doing" should have an element of fun. In recent years, we've lost that sense of fun. I've always felt there was a small stream of humor bubbling along just below our feet. Lately, it's become harder and harder to find.

In part, I suppose, that's because events surrounding us have become deadly serious. Humor is just one of the casualties of a world gone crazy. In fact, it's reached the point where some large corporations are actually hiring people to come to the workplace and teach their employees how to have fun at work again. It's not easy. We've got a generation of very serious young people on our hands. I keep a red, foam rubber clown nose in my desk drawer. You can have a lot of fun with one of those, especially in serious staff meetings. But I digress. Workplace humor, or the lack thereof, is not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about fun in our Craft.

When was the last time you really had a fun time in Lodge? Now, I know our philosophy and our work are serious stuff, but one of the reasons I go to Lodge is to enjoy the company of my Masonic Brothers. It's important to me. When I am unable to attend Lodge, I miss Brother Mac's jokes and Brother Jim's dry sense of humor. The element of "fun" is not a basic tenet of the Craft, but I've always had the feeling it should be. Recently, I came to understand exactly what it means.

I was invited to be the guest speaker at the Alnwick Club of Seattle. The Club is Freemasonry having fun. This Masonic dinner club meets every other month as a festive board with all the appropriate toasts and good times. At each meeting, they strive to find an interesting speaker. On occasion, they have to settle for someone like me, but usually they do much better.

Renaissance Lodge, No. 312, was formed out of the Alnwick Club and meets bimonthly, alternating with the Alnwick Club. The Club was founded in 1984 by then Most Worshipful Grand Master George R. Bordewick, and Brothers Norman Parkinson, Lou Bauer, and Bob Cokewell. Its purpose, explains the Club's Venerable Preceptor, Bro. Ed Opstad, was and is to "provide regular opportunities for Masonic fellowship and conviviality. Our meetings are not a dinner, which is only a meal. They are not merely a banquet, which is a dinner with entertainment. Each meeting is intended to be a feast, a special occasion, with special ceremonies, rituals and formalities. There is much talk, laughter, and singing during the eating. Our intention is to make the evening warm, comfortable, full of memories and affection."

The evening at which I shared some thoughts on leadership and the Masonic family was all that and more. More than 30 Brothers, some from more than 100 miles away, attended. They represented a half-dozen Lodges, at least. Toasts were drunk, stories were shared, and two Brothers who hadn't seen each other in years were reunited. It was a pleasant reminder that we can take our obligations and our work seriously and still have fun.

Incidentally, the name Alnwick honors one of the earliest recorded operative lodges in England, dating to at least 1701. The current Alnwick Lodge, successor to the original, continues to meet in Alnwick, North-umberland, England, to this day.

I'm thinking right now that it might be fun to create a similar dinner group here in the Valley of Phoenix. I know we'd have fun doing it.