OK, this was sent out on our Utah webring this morning, since I hadn't seen it before, I felt the need to share

You might be a Mason if:

1. You're at a wedding, and when the minister says "Amen," you blurt out "So Mote it Be." (for those of you who attended Dean and Edie Rein's wedding, that should bring back memories)

2. You find yourself trying to check out the rings on stranger's fingers.

3. You actually "got" the lines in the movie, The Man Who Would Be King, and can quote the movie like it was the Bible.

4. You feel compelled to attend the funeral of a complete stranger, just because you read in his obituary that he was a Mason.

5. You work a forty-hour work week in a cubicle, and still feel like you have a lot in common with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

6. Your thoughts about an attractive young lady suddenly come out of the gutter when she tells you her grandpa is a Mason.

7. You speed ahead of another Mason on the road and flash your hazard lights to make sure he'll notice your car emblems.

8. You children have names like "Royal Arch" and "Hiram."

9. You've actually heard of St. John's Day.

10. You actually know your hat and ring size.

11. Your best friends are an 92 year old WWII USS Arizona survivor, a 19 year old college student, a non-practicing Orthodox Jew, a doctor, a boilermaker, a Mexican-American, and some guy named Glen and you all spend at least one night a month together talking about working tools.

When is a Man a Mason?

When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage — which is the root of every virtue.

When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love his fellowman.

When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins — knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds.

When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends with himself.

When he loves flowers, can hunt birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child.

When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.

When star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters subdue him like the thought of one muched loved and long dead.

When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response.

When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be. (emphasis added)

When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin.

When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope.

When he has kept faith with himself, with his fellowman, and with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song — glad to live, but not afraid to die!

Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world.

— by Bro. Joseph Fort Newton

Fraternally submitted
/s/
Terry, PM
Freemason
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