Toward Ecosophy

The other evening I was attending a Masonic lodge meeting at St. Johns Lodge #1. (This was the one in Providence; as a result of the oddities of Masonic history, not to mention the even more colorful oddities of Rhode Island, this state has two lodges named St. Johns #1, one in Providence, the other in Newport.) After we finished the ordinary business of the meeting -- bills to be paid, a petition for membership to consider, and so on -- the local De Molay chapter came in and exemplified the De Molay opening and closing ceremony, and another ritual of theirs, the Ceremony of Lights. 

De Molay? It's the Masonic youth organization for boys. It takes its name and a bunch of its symbolism from Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar, who was burnt at the stake in 1314. I didn't know a great deal about it other than that, but I was mightily impressed by what I saw. 

What I saw was a group of boys, ages 12 to 17, of pretty much every skin color and ethnicity Providence has to offer -- which is saying something; it's a very diverse city -- who were courteous, well-spoken, self-possessed, at ease with each other and with a room full of Masons, and who went through their ritual with the peculiar air you get in a well-run lodge, an air of dignity without pompousness. The ritual, as lodge rituals generally do, spoke of the ideals the lodge exists to communicate with its members -- and the ideals of the Order of De Molay are political, religious, and intellectual liberty. 

All the way through the ceremony I was thinking, "Dear gods, if only more people valued those." 

Based on what I saw, I'd definitely encourage readers of mine with boys to look into De Molay and, if it looks suitable to your kids, talk to them and see if they're interested. There's also a parallel group for girls, Rainbow Girls, about which I know very little, but it might also be worth a look. In an era of turmoil and decline like this one, giving kids something other than the mass media and the schools to help guide them through the mess our society has made of youth strikes me as a very good idea.