One of the areas that seems to be on the rise for Freemasonry as a whole is the desire for education. The pandemic, regardless of where you fall in that conversation, appears to have been one of the triggers for that resurgence. If you look back when we were all suddenly stuck in the house and started meeting online, education seemed to be at the center of so much and many of us hope that trend continues.
There is a downside though, the tendency to form echo chambers.
In its simplest definition, an echo chamber is the tendency we all have to gravitate to those individuals and sources that reinforce our own view points. It's readily apparent when any of the larger Masonic websites brings up a topic or recommends something and then all the others "jump on the bandwagon."
These echo chambers are not just online, they're also alive and well in our Lodges, especially when it comes to education.
I'm often on the lookout for a new book, newsletter, magazine, website, etc. to check out when it comes to Freemasonry and unfortunately either our fraternity has very few individuals who share, or, we've created an echo chamber.
So often the names Pike, Wilmshurst, Hall, and a few others are mentioned for those looking for material. What we fail to realize is that those, and many others, are the only ones that are being recommended. The assumption being made is that these are the 'core' books, the ones that every Mason needs to read and if you want to be an educated Mason, those are the ones you have to read.
In traveling across my bookshelf I see other names that I feel could also be recommended Plato, Aurelius, Tzu, and Musashi (bonus points if you recognize the last two). They aren't written from the perspective of the fraternity but instead are philosophical. They cause us to pause and think. It doesn't take long when you start to broaden your view that you can see so much of the teachings of Freemasonry beyond just our small fraternity.
I'm not saying we should stop recommending the books we do, what I'm saying is that we need to lift our heads up once in a while, take a look around, and see where else we can find that knowledge and light we're all looking for.
Who knows, maybe you'll find that nugget from the outside that you need to help you take the next step in your journey.