# Is he a mason?



## jwhoff (Mar 19, 2011)

Can a man who hates be considered a true mason?


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## Zack (Mar 19, 2011)

It depends.


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## Bill Lins (Mar 19, 2011)

While we all aspire to become perfect ashlars, we, being human, will always fall short. We all have our flaws. One of the things we, as Masons, are charged with is to help each other overcome said flaws as best we can.


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## Beathard (Mar 20, 2011)

I believe I am a pretty good mason. I currently hate delta airlines. 9th time I have been delayed by delta for over 24 hours in the last 10 years. Sitting in a nasty hotel in Atlanta again due to mechanical delays. So I'm not perfect. I'm working with the common gavel chipping it off bit by bit, but this hotel they put me up in is nasty.


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## tom268 (Mar 20, 2011)

Hate is a feeling, and feelings belong to men. You don't need to be a saint to be a mason. But you have to hate the hate, to be a mason, so to speak. We strive to become a better man, that is all that is expected from us.


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## Michaelstedman81 (Mar 20, 2011)

Yes, he can.  We are here to make ourselves better and to assist make others better by being a guide or someone follow.  Just because he has a bit of hate in him, doesn't mean that he will have that hate anymore when he leaves the lodge.


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## Ol Kev (Mar 20, 2011)

Would it be fair to say that human nature being what it is furnishes that emotion whether we like it or not and as long as we are willing check it at the door of the lodge while we learn to subdue our passions, that is what is expected?


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## Bro. Brad Marrs (Mar 20, 2011)

I think so, providing he uses that emotion to grow, learn, and then transform that emotion into something good. I personally think the allegory of the checkered pavement applies here in addition to good and evil.


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## Beathard (Mar 20, 2011)

Ok I hate them a little less. Still getting to Texas 24 hours late and have to connect through Atlanta and Detroit, but at least they upgraded my party of 4 to first class from Detroit to Austin. I guess masonry teaches us that we should begin to forgive and good things will happen?  Maybe if I totally forgive they will give my money back?


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## Bill Lins (Mar 20, 2011)

Well, you know Delta's slogan: "We get you _close_!"


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## jwhoff (Mar 20, 2011)

I'd be willing to forgive anyone who gave my money back!


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## Brent Heilman (Mar 21, 2011)

Hate is just one of the emotions we experience as human beings and can be viewed as a passionate feeling we may hold toward an individual, group of individuals, or something else. We are learning how to be better men and constantly finding ways in which to improve ourselves. Learning to subdue the hate is just one of many passions we must subdue in order to become better


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## MikeMay (Mar 21, 2011)

I think it depends on how you define hate and what you do to overcome that hate...I don't hate people, but I may of a temporary strong dislike for one or two every once in a while if I'm cut off on IH35 during rush hour.  And after counting to 10 I'll forgive 'em, which usually occurs about the time they get cut off by someone else, and I realize I shouldn't have been mad in the first place and chastise myself for letting my emotions run amok.

But...I do hate Cottage Cheese.  I hate it will all my heart and soul and I'm not going to do anything to correct that hatred...does that count?


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## Bill Lins (Mar 21, 2011)

Soooooooo, ya hate cottage cheese, do ya? Wanna teach it a lesson??? Show it who's boss??? Just send it down this way- I'll abuse it for ya! :wink:


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## MikeMay (Mar 21, 2011)

Brother I can't even look at it...my mom made me try it when I was 8...I put a big spoonful in my mouth and my stomach reached up, closed my throat and said "That nasty stuff isn't coming down here....no way!"


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## Michaelstedman81 (Mar 22, 2011)

I'm right there with you Mike.  My mother had me try it when I was younger, and then later in life my ole lady had me try it to prove that I didn't like it...lol  I had the normal "Goldschlager" response........lol


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## Bill Lins (Mar 22, 2011)

Buncha wusses!  :lol:


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## Bro.BruceBenjamin (Mar 22, 2011)

While you are in the flesh aren't you subject to the flesh?


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## MikeMay (Mar 22, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> Buncha wusses!  :lol:


 
You should see it when my mom puts it in green jello...yack!!


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## Bill Lins (Mar 22, 2011)

Bro.BruceBenjamin said:


> While you are in the flesh aren't you subject to the flesh?


 
When in Rome...  :wink:

---------- Post added at 07:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:47 PM ----------




MikeMay said:


> You should see it when my mom puts it in green jello...yack!!


 
I _love_ that stuff!


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## MikeMay (Mar 22, 2011)

Next time my mom threatens to make it, I'll tell her to send the whole bowl your way...  ;-)

---------- Post added at 08:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 PM ----------




Bro.BruceBenjamin said:


> While you are in the flesh aren't you subject to the flesh?


 
Good point,..in order to make a good man better, we have to know where the "rough" edges are...


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## jwhoff (Mar 30, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> Buncha wusses!  :lol:


 
That's ... that's *weese* brother.  The proper plural form of _*woose*_.

:17:


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## Bill Lins (Mar 30, 2011)

I always thought it was "_weeses_"- rhymes with "meeses", as in "I hate those meeses to pieces!"  Now, for extra credit, what was the name of the character who said it?  :wink:


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## jwhoff (Mar 30, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> I always thought it was "_weeses_"- rhymes with "meeses", as in "I hate those meeses to pieces!"  Now, for extra credit, what was the name of the character who said it?  :wink:


 
Jerry?


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## Beathard (Mar 30, 2011)

Mr. Jinks


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## Bill Lins (Mar 31, 2011)

Beathard said:


> Mr. Jinks


 
We have a winner!   :14:

For even more credit, name the "meeses" and the show on which they appeared!  :laugh:


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## steve632111 (Mar 31, 2011)

pixie and Dixie (mice) and mr jinx didn't even need google


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## Bill Lins (Mar 31, 2011)

On what show did they appear?


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## Beathard (Mar 31, 2011)

Huckleberry Hound of course. Are we showing our age?


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## Bill Lins (Apr 1, 2011)

Beathard said:


> Are we showing our age?


 
I, for one, am _proud_ to still be running (slowly) with this many miles on me!

:tongue_smilie: :14: :5: :thumbup1:


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## jwhoff (Apr 4, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> I, for one, am _proud_ to still be running (slowly) with this many miles on me!
> 
> :tongue_smilie: :14: :5: :thumbup1:


 

Yeah?  and are all the pieces of you getting there at the same time?
:15:


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## Bill Lins (Apr 4, 2011)

Welllllllllll...


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## Bill Lins (Apr 4, 2011)

Did you ever have a "Rice Krispie" day? You know, when every time you move it's "snap, crackle, pop..."?  :wink:


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## jwhoff (Apr 4, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> Did you ever have a "Rice Krispie" day? You know, when every time you move it's "snap, crackle, pop..."?  :wink:


 
I just had a Rice Krispie go off in my left knee.  The answer is Y E S!

:blink:


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## Beathard (Apr 4, 2011)

Mine are usually popping in my shoulders not my knees.


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## Bill Lins (Apr 4, 2011)

Mine are equal opportunity.  :wink:


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## Tony Siciliano (Apr 5, 2011)

I have always said that the opposite of 'love' is not 'hate'.  Both emotions require a lot of energy, and a lot of time devoted to them.  With both emotions, you feel it in your gut... you think about it... you may even begin to pattern your life around it.

No, the opposite of 'love' is not hate... it's 'indifference'.  When you truly have no love for something - you just don't care about it at all.  

Deep Thoughts by Tony...


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## MikeMay (Apr 5, 2011)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> Mine are equal opportunity.  :wink:



Better to be equal opportunity than have 'em all gang up in :29: one place on one part...

The result could require assistance... :46:


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## jwhoff (Apr 6, 2011)

MikeMay said:


> Better to be equal opportunity than have 'em all gang up in :29: one place on one part...
> 
> The result could require assistance... :46:




WOW!  This looks all the world like a _*VIAGRA*_ted e-mail.  :40:


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## jwhoff (Apr 6, 2011)

Tony Siciliano said:


> I have always said that the opposite of 'love' is not 'hate'.  Both emotions require a lot of energy, and a lot of time devoted to them.  With both emotions, you feel it in your gut... you think about it... you may even begin to pattern your life around it.
> 
> No, the opposite of 'love' is not hate... it's 'indifference'.  When you truly have no love for something - you just don't care about it at all.
> 
> Deep Thoughts by Tony...



Good post.  Thought provoking.


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## Wayfarer (Aug 18, 2011)

(I won't vote on this as I am not a Freemason, but...)

Looking at the history of your order, it would seem the problem is not hate but *what* is hated and *why*.  Jonathan Swift and Voltaire (though Voltaire came to the Nine Sisters Lodge very late in life) both can be said, very fairly, to have been filled with hatred -- but for what?  Ignorance, superstition, intolerance, among other things.  Ben Franklin had a sort of hatred for intolerance and superstition as well, and for moral viciousness and political enslavement.  Mark Twain, both in his stories and in his (now) less widely read essays, had an open hatred for intolerance, ignorance, meanness, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, imperialism, buncombe,....  

I do not mean, in any of these cases, that these men found these things "a bit irritating" by using the word "hatred"; I mean that they had enmity for these things -- these were their enemies, the things against which they fought in the name of other, positive values.

_"To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy of the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it is most fervently to be wished, that the conduct of every member of the fraternity, as well as those publications, that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race."_ *George Washington*

That, I take it, is a nice, short statement of the aims of Masonry - "_to promote the happiness of the human race._"  So hatred for all that is actively opposed to that happiness would seem both appropriate and actually exhibited in the lives of some of the greatest members of your fraternity.  

Hatred is an energy; what one does with that energy determines the goodness or badness of the action, morally.


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## K.S. (Sep 29, 2011)

I believe so, as it has been stated, hate is a human emotion. It is up to the Mason to subdue his passions. It is a feeling and it's what a man does with those feelings that defines his masonic journey.


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## Brent Heilman (Oct 3, 2011)

K.S. said:


> I believe so, as it has been stated, hate is a human emotion. It is up to the Mason to subdue his passions. It is a feeling and it's what a man does with those feelings that defines his masonic journey.



Well said Brother!


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