Here's Hoping for Passion

Keeping those aforementioned grains of salt in mind, my impression is that there is a fundamental tension in Freemasonry - at its heart it can be summed up with two words: generation gap. What I find interesting about this conflict, though, is the reversal of the roles you expect whenever tensions arise between youth and their elders.

If the online voices of passionate, younger Freemasons are a somewhat accurate indicator, it is the new Masons who are lamenting the loss of "the old ways" while charging the current guard with wandering off the path. Usually it's the codgers complaining about the "kids these days."

The implications to this potential candidate are clear: As the fraternity loses more and more of its elder members, it's going to up to the younger ones to re-shape it into what they want, while continuing to find new members... nobody's going to do it for them. That's a pretty tall order, and although I'm trying not to think too far ahead, the thought of rising to meet that challenge is daunting.

However, given a larger and more objective sample I am sure you can find as many deep-thinking, philosophical elder Masons as you can absentee, only-in-it-for-the-networking young ones.

Here's hoping that I see some of that philosophical passion alive at my local lodge this evening.