About 10 years ago I started on a path in which I followed men whom I always had held in high regard, A high school best friend Mark McClure had joined the Masons and he spent several years pursuing his various interests, York Rite, Scottish Rite,  Knights Templar, and District Deputy Grand Lecturer. He strove to be the best, to join and promote all aspects of this fraternity he had joined while caring for his dying mother and always without complaint giving 100% to both obligations. I watched curious, not all that interested. He led a tough road, why did he want to be a Mason?  What was this all about?

As I became more familiar with the fraternity I approached my friend, Sensei and big brother Mark Zachary. Zac had always been a friend but the one thing that I noticed above all else was his unselfish pursuit to help others including me. I had trained in karate for many years and Zac always pushed me to be better as he did all those around him. He had a willingness to give and never ask for anything in return. Zac mentored children in the community, helped anyone who asked him to, and really amazed me at the generosity he never wanted praise for. Seeing two of the people in this world that I most wanted to be like, both being in the same fraternity together, finally gave me the courage  and asked one day” What is a Mason” he replied “ A mason is what a Mason is.” Curious I asked, “How can I join the masons?” he replied “ask me again later” eventually both he my friend Mark McClure brought me into Masonic light, after my fifth or so time asking.

I now understand that a mason is not an individual made of ego or worldly wealth, but a man whose path is to always seek the path of light and to be a generous, caring example to their peers who above all else follows a moral code, a way of life that leads ultimately to becoming a community member whose actions, although often done in the background, constantly strive to improve their own as well as the people around them lives.     

Today I am in awe; I have been elected to the highest privilege a Blue Lodge Mason can be elected to, Master of the lodge. I feel a sense of pride that makes me wonder how I of all people ever got to such a distinction among men older, wiser, and far better suited for the tough job that I am about to undertake. As I look to the lodge I see our membership declining, our members loosing interest and above all else a mission of urgency to save something that has helped mold me to become the person I am today. Masonry is for many an organization, a fraternity, for me it is a balance and a family. Its members always willing to help each other, to kindly remind our errors and aid in the reformation of the same. Today Masonry is what we make it and I intend to give back to this great fraternity as it has given to me.  We as a group of great and caring individuals can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch; we must strive to continue on the traditions of kindness and humble servitude to give as generously as we have received.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to serve this great fraternity.

Boyd Ammons

Below is the Wikipedia definition of what a Mason is, I think it just barely scratches the surface of what a Mason really is. Please check out this site for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

the Square and Compasses

Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organisation. Its members are reportedly joined together by shared ideals of both a moral and metaphysical nature, and, in most of its branches, by a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry is an esoteric society, in that certain aspects of its internal work are not generally disclosed to the public, but it is not an occult system, and in recent years, it has become less and less a "secret society" than a "society with secrets". However, there are numerous reasons for the amount of secrecy which remains, one of which is that Freemasonry uses an initiatory system of degrees to explore ethical and philosophical issues, and that the system is less effective if the observer knows beforehand what will happen. It has often been called "a beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." ^[1]