Are we looking the wrong way?
Masonic Musings #42
This week, I sat down and watched the Snyder cut of the Justice League movie (I'll admit it wasn't the first time). I know, I know, the movie carries with it a lot of controversy and to be honest having seen the other versions of this movie I will have to admit that I found the Snyder version the best of the lot. There are a lot of underlying themes and more than a few quotes that stuck out this time as I watched it. There was one in particular that I felt was tied to a challenge I feel that our fraternity doesn't seem to want to address.
The world is hurt, broken, unexchageable. The world's not fixed in the past, only the future. The not yet. The now. - Silas Stone
Now I realize that I'm taking one small part out of what is a great monologue that occurs towards the end of the movie, but it struck a nerve with me this time. The comment is about the world, and our fraternity is in some ways a reflection of that.
So often, when we talk about our fraternity, we speak about the past. We talk about the great leaders that were also masons. We talk about the size of the organization and how great it was. How often have you heard "it's tradition," or "we've always done it this way", or even "back in my day?" Why do we do this?
In some respects, it reminds me of those movie scenes where you see all the old football players sitting around reliving their glory years. It's great to do that as there are many lessons to be learned in the past, but there is also a danger of not returning from it.
Which is why those few lines of dialogue stuck with me.
When we talk about our fraternity these days, we spend a lot of time talking about the past. We look at it with reverence, we look at it and feel that is the way things should be. There are some things I would be happy to see return, but we also have to understand, like those lines of dialog point out, our problems won't be fixed by what was done in the past.
Our fraternity needs to embrace change. We need to understand that we live in a world where there are other demands on our time, technology is a part of our lives, and we have to understand that those joining our fraternity are joining for reasons beyond personal growth - community service is a large reason many want to join with us. We need to embrace those things and use them to strengthen us. Furthermore, we need to understand that not every individual wants the same thing out of our great organization, and that diversity will only help to make us better. We have to look forward, we have to look at things differently and understand that while we can reminisce and learn from our past. Those lessons are what we need to take from the past to shape the future, not try to replicate it.
Spot on! Great read.