Superman and Master Mason
As the morning sun rises in the East. I design my Trestleboard for my labors each day. While grooming, I contemplate my mortality and push my inner thoughts of achievement to the highest standards to which I can attain that day. Then I put on my red cape and blue tights. Each day my responsibility and attention are always under a microscope. I have to perform well for the charity of others and for myself.
Everyone knows Superman. His good deeds, wisdom and kindness are known to all ages. Yet, sometimes only Master Masons know of each other and of their Masonic accomplishments. Masons perform under the highest standard and yet their efforts sometimes go unnoticed. Where Superman does get the "Well done Sup ol boy" to boost his steel ego, Master Masons are rarely noticed -- or are they?
While Superman does his "one-man show", Master Masons work as a team. They receive very little public attention for their labors and yet still continue to maintain the highest standard of excellence. Maybe it is because the Master Mason receives his satisfaction from working in the harmony with other Masons or Supermen! It is because of this harmony among ourselves that many others feel resentment towards us.
Is Superman a Master Mason? He could be. He is an orphan, a widow's son so to speak of from a distant land. He does practice charity and maintain secrecy (his own identity), but Superman is an exclusive item, he is only to himself. He has no peers. He can never find that harmony of working shoulder to shoulder with his brothers as we can. So, the applause he hears is only to the singular self and can never be shared. What warmth Master Masons enjoy -- that of sharing the applause of a job well done and the harmony of working as a whole and not as an individual, to reach the light.
Master Masons are the real-life Supermen. We have the wisdom and knowledge to right a wrong, feed the hungry and heal the sick. Our deeds may go unnoticed but they will never be ignored by the ones they have changed. There is a little bit of Superman in every Mason.
Theodore N Karagias.
Re-printed by permission of Theodore N Karagias from the December 1989 Trestleboard of Sunrise Lodge #288