We have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to Us you’ve reached the internet’s home for all things masonry join on the level podcast as we Plum the depths of our ancient craft and try to unlock the Mysteries dispel the fallacies and utilize the teachings of Freemasonry to unlock the greatness with an each of us I have you Now all right welcome back to on the level podcast thank you for having me brother brother today we have a very very special guest you’ve heard him once before uh you heard heard him when he was in you were installed master of your Lodge I think is when we had you on yes
No Grand Lodge that Grand Lodge that’s right Grand Lodge we were both masters of our lodges I think at the time uh this is Timothy worshipful Timothy fwn welcome back Timothy good to have you well thank you thank you worshiper Burns right really happy about that which means you’ll have all the titles
Soon brother uh yeah starting to learn that that twetter word the best I can but uh the secret word of a Master Mason you know the Lost word yeah yeah I’ll do yeah yeah hey tin turns into yeah yeah you have a new title right I mean you uh you’re now yeah
What’s your title I am the personal rep for the executive officer for District 5 in deay which encompasses District 23 of msonic District wise the districts are a little different so who do you report to Jody the executive officer yep Jody Jody Maguire the executive officer mire that’s worshipful Jody Maguire
Actually we’re gonna go there yeah worship he was the master of Hillsboro Lodge right number 25 what an awesome Lodge man ah a great lodge I mean that’s what Freemason lodges should look like yeah I agree if we could all get the faux finish done and make the whole
Place look like a temple like that everywhere that would be awesome do yourself a favor and go uh Google Hillsboro lodge number 25 that’s in Florida and you will see a a twostory lodge that has the dining actually three stories I think the dining hall is downstairs and the main
Floor like a Foye kind of a deal and up stairs they have the billiard Hall and the actual Lodge itself another layer I think it’s got a second story on the on the lodge level there’s like rafter seatings up there I can’t get over the offices they
Have there the worsh master actually has an office the secretary actually has an office it’s not just a closet in the back of the lodge that you hide away in yeah my Lodge has it’s the secretary’s office the m office is where the secretary puts the scrap like
There’s no for the master to sit in there and do anything right I mean not that I don’t know I didn’t really need one when I was I mean I had to sign stuff for the secretary you know but it all goes back to the secretary so it’s
Like I didn’t really need a that like my my routine was I’d get there early I’d go in the secretary’s office what do you need me to sign sign sign sign and then I never step foot in there again for the rest of the night yeah um in our law just where we
Keep a lot of things like uh before we started putting them in the display case like ritual books and uh catechism instru and uh the mentors manuals and all that kind of stuff so I would have to go in there for that uh but with exception of that yeah a couple of
Things I got to sign and that’s it you uh well I have to say you’re the first person that has been a repeat guest on the podcast we’ve never ever had somebody on a second time as a guest yeah me well I mean I’ll answer that because there’s a very good reason for
It you are one of the best examples I know of what a Mason should be uh I don’t know about that but I appreciate the compliment that’s for me to say it and you to take it okay take it just take it uh because I observe I’m an observer um I’m somebody
Who grew up like the only Mo male in the household and you know we moved around all the time so I really developed people watching in skills and it’s one of the skills that served me well in masonry because I could pretty quickly identify who is what um with some rare
Exceptions I might have been wrong because I wanted something I wanted somebody to be something maybe they weren’t you saw something you wanted to see something in them that just wasn’t there yeah that that I’m not going to say that didn’t happen but oh by and
Large um it served me really well and and you were somebody that I watched from afar for a while we didn’t really have a whole lot of dealings with each other until we got close to being Masters together um the very end of our senior Warden year like uh and honestly though
But even then it was only you know conversations a couple of times or whatever not it’s not like we were calling each other or anything until pretty much right after we were installed I guess yeah and then we had like a year where we LED our district
Really you and I at our district let’s be honest I mean no one wants to say that out loud and I’m not saying it to be cocky it’s just what happened we we really rallied um the other Masters together and even our members together uh you convinced me to come to the uh
Esoteric nights that that you were already doing and you’re I convinced you to host it even I mean it wasn’t very hard to convince you though it was like Hey we’re doing this thing and you’re like oh I wanted to do that well why
Don’t we both do it it was like yeah why not you guys had the better the better formula for the night and I just had you know people that were actually showing up to it we just needed to come together so we could build it even more I think
Is what the thing was we just took ideas from each other and made it what it is actually we just had one Saturday it wasn’t super well attended but we probably had I don’t know 10 or 11 Brothers there it was we had a great conversation was awesome like to most
People that would be awesome attendance to have 10 or 11 guys show up just to talk about masonry night not at a LOD that’s right we got spoiled last year because we had 28 guys coming that’s we grew it to man right yeah and I knew this one was wasn’t
Going to be the same as what we ended it at because it’s the first one of the year we got to get everybody back and used to doing it we already had the second one planned um I know a couple people have conflicts but you know it
Was the only day that worked in March um for most of us I guess but no man it actually it was really really good we actually used your topic that you brought up which was officers um Lodge officers duties except for it didn’t get a whole lot into that it more delved
Into um I told you you would to be an officer or not to be an officer you know what I mean what the The Perks of Being of getting in the officer line getting involved that way versus not and uh it was good so those of you in District 23
March 30th we’re having the next exoteric discussion I encourage you to come out at some point I’ll I’ll convince him to record these sessions and we’ll put them online for other people to see probably heavily edited because there’s drinking and uh I mean I’ve seen we wouldn’t do
That we had one where uh one of the younger guys who wasn’t as experienced at having some cocktails was oh my God a little messy uh by the end of the night and if that was on video he would not approve no yeah so you know you got to
Be careful about that kind of stuff but even that but at the same time if you’re gonna do that if you’re going to get a little out of hand there was not a better environment for that to have happened nobody was going to let that guy drive home and nobody was going to
Let him get himself in any any kind of situation where he would have been a danger to himself or somebody else nope um he might have emotionally scarred one of my dogs for life but other than that he did spend quite a bit of time on the
Floor with the dog I mean actually wasn’t on the floor it was in the grass was healthy they were just playing but you know right right no it was fun I’m glad he had a good time glad he had a good time did he did I drove him home
That night and we stopped to get I had had a Tesla I have a Tesla so I stopped to charge real quick because I wasn’t going to make it home and I turned around and and there he was about to pee uh he was trying to like hide it so he
Was like but I’m like bro bro stop stop stop do not pee on the electrical machine how about you go right over there he was like oh thank you so much like no that’s the last we need death by Tesla urination I mean that definitely made the news so I
Mean oh no but we have a great time you know um and if it ever got off course we managed to get ourselves back on track it was I really missed those uh those meetings I’m G to make it back for more dude everybody was like what Chris isn’t
Coming like no he’s not going to make it everybody was like are you serious yeah no not so much man I was leaning on you I was looking forward to just having you run the damn thing yeah I’m tired of things man I’m just here running a podcast now in my in
My uh little Studio it’s awesome you know I wanted to have you back as the first repeat guest because like I said you Tred to slip out of this one but I’m not GNA let you you were uh I observed you and you were really a
Great Mesa um in my eyes and and that was before you became the master and it looked like you were doing everything for the right reasons to me from the outside looking in and then once we started working together I got the clear picture that you are the real deal you
Are an actual like what a Mason’s supposed to be um and you’re really trying hard to help other people and uh you know we had crazy years because we were trying to help everybody that we could I know you traveled to other districts to do degrees um that year and
I was traveling to other districts repeatedly for very things um we really tried to just show what leadership should look like it’s it’s true servant leadership is what we tried to I think Express in our year and uh and and that you’re stronger together right well my biggest thing was
90% of the job is showing up if you could just show up and actually be involved that’s I mean that that’s more than what most of the Masons do yeah you know if you say you’re going to have an event go to it you if there’s an event
In the district that you want you keep saying you want to go support thing well go go do it that’s I I told the guys behind me like this isn’t like any other chair you’ve had where you can just show up for the meeting and and then go home
This is like going to be a essentially a full-time job for you uh you should be at all the degrees you should be at all the mastermation association meetings you should attend every installation you can get to you should try to go to other degrees in your District if you can and
Bring as many many guys as you can with you this is a full-time job this is not a joke to be the master of a lot uh and I don’t know how effective I was and drilling that into them but one can hope that something got through uh we are we
Actually I created little docks to give it to so they can distribute it around year after year of what to expect and uh how to prepare because everyone lot organized right like but how no one ever told me how they were just like you got
To get ready you got to make your plans and I’m like what what does that even mean and then the biggest thing I got was uh your installation plan for your put money aside for your installation you got to and that’s like pretty much most of the advice I got from the past
Master about installation for those that aren’t Masons or haven’t been in the officer line uh the master at least in our district the master the who’s about to be installed plans his own installation uh it’s like planning your own wedding uh I guess sort of yeah so you got to
Figure out like the food and you got to figure out the music and is somebody gonna sing the natural L like you got to figure all this stuff out and uh coordinate with God knows how many people to get it done you know there’s probably there got to be 20 guys easy
That are involved in an installation from the officers being installed to the Past Masters that are sitting in their chairs to the installing officer and the Marshall and like there there probably good 20 guys easy yeah yeah right about 20 it’s no joke and my biggest concern was the food
Yeah yeah well that was the biggest thing for me you don’t want people to not you know have a good time right right and if you’re gonna you know expect people to show up to an event like that for a couple hours um the least you can do is feed them in my
Opinion right you know yeah they’re gonna sit through your boring installation at least can right right yeah I mean and you make it as little as uh I guess as less boring as possible but um I mean at the end of the day we were at each other’s
Installations you were at mine and I wasin yeah we got uh we got pinned as Illuminati at yours oh my God that’s right I shared uh I I was I shared photos from my installation and there was a nice candid photo somebody took of me and Tim having a just a private chat
After the installation just I don’t know who took it but it was a pretty good photo of us just chatting and uh it couldn’t have been like a month later I saw an ad for the Illuminati and it had used our photo as if we are the
Illuminati and I was like I just thought that was hilarious everyone was so upset they were like you got to get him to take it down this and that I’m like this is great what are you talking about BS this is this whole Illuminati thing is a bunch of
BS they don’t even do anything they’re just stealing pictures from the internet making it look like they’re doing stuff it’s man how many messages do you get from the Illuminati I can’t tell you how many I’ve got from from crazy wacka do saying you know join for the cause or
Whatever it’s yeah it’s crazy seems to be all about getting rich all the messaging I get is like get rich you know yeah earn more money God I don’t know but you know here you are second time and now you’re the personal representative uh in in zone five district five for deay yeah
District Five for Deo and U we’ve never on this show talked about any kind of a pendant body or outside organ organization other than traditional blue Lodge masonry I mean we’ve mentioned Scottish right and York right but we never really and motor core I think last
Time I was on we talked a little bit about motor but you know yeah that was just a wormhole we got down somehow or another like a rabbit Trail maybe we for five minutes but this is the first time I thought you know you’re the guy now um
In our area uh for Deo and so I thought it’d be great because I um wasn’t in deole myself um I was not a leader in De ol for about 10 minutes I was the chapter advisor of a chapter but uh I didn’t get a whole lot of experience um so you know
I’ve done research and I thought it’d be great to have you on because a lot of people listen to the show that aren’t Masons um and so I always try to keep that in mind and even people that are masons a lot of new guys probably don’t
Know about deole people that were raised with like within the first 12 months they have never even they may not even know their Lodge has a deay chapter uh so I thought it would be worthwhile to have a chat with you about deole specifically it’s a great subject to be
Honest I mean I am a senior deay I was can you talk to be one of about your background in De so yeah like how it impacted your Masonic career um I was eight years old when I was introduced to deay my older brother started a uh well was a charter
Member of Lake Suter chapter in Eustace Florida um and I was I mean back then I thought it was so cool with the gavel and The Capes and all the candies com on and off I thought it was all cool um so I showed up to everything I was at every
Fundraiser they had every cleanup they had I mean anything I could be at I I was I almost actually joined early when I was 11 a couple of months because there was a conclave and my birthday was in like you know two months after conclave and they almost just let me
Just go ahead and join that conclave but then it endend enough happen so what is conclave conclave is basically it’s a Convention of U that deay puts on once a year it’s basically it’s a week long well five day long event where the boys just have a good time they there’s
Sports competitions there’s ritual competitions there are delegate sessions where the young men vote on their legislation for what uh you know what they want to do and and uh who they want to to run their uh who who they want to be officers and and things and some of
That’s changed over the years too some of it boys have a little less saying the executive officer now appoints certain things just because of some things didn’t work out so they had to change around um but also uh yeah I mean it’s a pretty cool just to have five days in a
Hotel room with your buddies throughout the state that was like the best memories I had D was was a conclave because you know even when you weren’t in the competitions and stuff you’re still spending a you know a week just about at a nice hotel with you know a
Bunch of teenagers that you get along with hopefully you know so who pays for that so the chapters pay for it so they have to fundraise for it throughout the year so that you know cuz it’s it’s not cheap either it’s close to 400 bucks a
Kid 350 a kid depends on how many kids are in a room wow but uh it’s it’s pretty expensive so if the chapter doesn’t do a good job at fun raising well then you know each member is out of pocket or they have to look for a sponsorship or or otherwise like that
Which um I know Venice Lodge helps out usually helps send a couple of guys every year to go to conclave um different events yeah I know that uh your Lodge Dennis lodge number 301 has as long as I’ve been in masonry has always been like a pillar of the deole
Community uh you have a very popular chapter there well we’re all in restructure right now uh I love SE Allen Patterson chapter I like the I love our namesake it’s it’s great um he started Drew and Drew warmington and Larry Bernard branched off of Sarasota chapter to come down and
Start a new chapter in Venice and they chose the the name c Allen Patterson after the uh past master of Venice that was the founding senior Warden of of Venice Lodge and the founding where master of Englewood Lodge the I of SE Allen Patterson chapter would be to be
The encompassing areas that uh like Port Charlotte Englewood uh Venice and have the boys all come there and then eventually break off from there and maybe start a chapter in uh Port Charlotte or Englewood or you or pagora or or whatever and it just hasn’t got
There yet but we’re in a restructure now we’ve got um probably got about five boys that are actively showing up uh all the time and then we’ve got like 20 on the books but so right now it’s uh we’re working to plan some more fun events to
Get the guys more active and and hopefully eventually build the chapter back up where it needs to be so deole is I mean big picture it’s basically an organ a Youth Organization for boys uh that are aged 12 to 21 12 to 21 yep and um the only requirement they
Have similar masonry is that they believe in a higher power correct right right you have to believe in a higher power or that there is I have heard the argument of um agnostic being perfectly fine as long as you believe that there is something there you don’t necessarily have to know what
It is but um there has to be something you know guiding you to be a better not an atheist basically no not an atheist agnostic I would say yeah but atheist no basically you have to have something to hold you accountable for an obligation so are women allowed to join
Or girls allowed to join deole uh no so years ago they had a sorority program um that was well received for a little bit and it died off shortly thereafter uh but no um we have the sweetheart program which if a if a chapter has a charter they’re
Eligible to have a sweetheart which is basically a female liaison helps them with you know planning fun events or planning a charity or whatever you know whatever the chapter needs and they get a they usually get a nice Tiara and a sash um you know something you know uh
Seen Patterson’s has a actual a cape for the uh sweetheart you know costumes are the best I mean the Dem costumes are these black robes it’s like what I thought the night Templar costumes would look like but then I found out no you look like a confederate soldier wearing
A Captain Crunch hat and I was like no no that is not what I thought deole was gonna look like then I saw uh then I saw the deole I mean I’m I’m talking not deole I’m talking about the you know the night the Templars the night Templar
Right York right in the consist I believe uh because I was really interested in that that’s why I joined the York ride I wanted to get involved and then they you know they showed up and I was like what are you wearing no not for me but then I saw
D oh I heard it’s like a grand put that costume together oh man it’s bad yeah it to me it looks like a Confederate outfit basically with like a you know it’s got a the chipo isn’t that what it’s called a chipo or something like that got a nice big white Mohawk
It’s real fluffy um right so I saw D mole and they’re wearing what I thought that an actual night Templar would wear it’s like robes you look pretty pretty badass I got to say and they’re black and you got they’re black now they oh they weren’t always black no there used to
Actually be different colors for every position oh every position had its own color at one point in time and then I want to say like early 2000s a little after either before I joined or after I joined we had both when I was when I was
In but I don’t know when at what point they actually like quit using them um because we would still use them on and off but yeah I can’t remember all the colors but yeah every every office had a different color or most of the offices have had a different color and then
Eventually they just came out with all the everybody had a black one now are you familiar with how Deo started in the beginning uh yeah I mean a little bit I have never read hey Dad I’ve never you know I haven’t dived deep into it I’ve been told a million times
To be honest with you but history was never one of my strong suits I know the important parts oh I’m sure you do well I I think it’s fascinating I pulled it up um and I thought i’ I’d read it real quick the history of so in 1919
1919 well employed as the social services director for the Scottish right bodies in Kansas City Missouri Frank Sherman land hired a teenager by the name of Lewis Gordon lower to perform odd jobs around the building as the two became friends lay found out that Low’s father had died a
Short time before and that the young man missed having the guidance of a father so lower had um other friends whose fathers were not in the home whether from divorce or abandonment or death and um and that these young men would also like to have an adult male that they
Could go to for guidance basically so he said I tell you what why don’t you invite some of your friends to the Scottish right building and we’ll talk about starting Club within a few days low brought eight of his friends to a meeting and the nine men agreed that the
Idea of a club was a good one and soon the order of deay was born within three years chapters had been established in 39 of the 48 states then 48 states and the District of Columbia and it’s now worldwide they’ve changed their name in dle international fascinating to me that it
Started from a Mason who saw a kid who needed a dad figure and said go get some of your friends we’re going to start a club so the influence of masonry in deole is got to be profound well I yeah I mean it goes without saying we it’s it’s our there
Are sponsoring body um you don’t necessarily have to have a blue Lodge sponsor you but I mean it’s the most common that you’ll find is a blue Lodge sponsoring yeah or a Mason of some type whether it’s if it’s a shrine or a Scottish wri club or or what have you
You don’t have to have a you don’t have to necessarily be sponsored by a blue Lodge to have a DEA chapter though you don’t no okay no there’s actually uh I want to say at one point in Georgia a friend of mine is the executive officer there now uh Mark
Griffith he was an adviser whenever uh in Florida when I was coming up um he I think at one point in time he was talking to a Prince Hall Shrine Club or something like that if I’m not mistaken I it because it doesn’t matter it’s not an official Masonic body right the deay
We we are an official dependent body yes but we don’t have to use yeah yeah we are um I’m sure as far as I know if we’re not that’s news to me you probably are um I’m what I’m showing is uh if you’re watching the video you’re looking at the
Uh this is basically the logo for Dem The Shield um yeah um and the crown appearing in the self- adopted heraldic arms which is the emblem of the order contains 10 rubies y you can see them around the crown each representing one of the original nine members and the
Organization’s founder Frank s l yep Frank and they used to be all pearls it says the were originally portrayed as pearls as each founding member died the Pearl representing him was changed to a ruby yep so there you go if you ever wonder there was still a couple of
Pearls on there when I got initiated really oh 199 I guess they were kids so yeah yeah no there was still a couple whenever I was in the last one just died I want to say in 2014 or something like that I could be wrong on that I’m not
Sure I know it was it wasn’t super long ago so you got you got the Knight the swords you got the the what were rubies what were pearls out rubies to represent those founding members that created de mole um there there’s actually a uh presentation about this it’s called The
Shield talk yes about that about the logo it goes all in in depth into it that I’m hoping we will have one of the young men uh in our district learn to start presenting to the different lodges there’s a couple of uh different presentations that deay has like that
The ceremony of light the flower talk The Shield talk uh nigh hood has one called The Rose talk I believe uh there there there’s several of them basically it just tells you what the organization is about what we stand for and they’re different speeches you know focusing on
Different aspects of it so that I guess that begs the question of what does deole stand for um in my research I found uh de has seven cardinal virtues um they’re taught as the basic ideals of I guess being a demo is to being a man being a person just they’re
Just being a man they are the standards of which you are to base your life as a Deo yes they are filo love reverence for sacred things courtesy comradeship Fidelity cleanness and patriotism yes exactly if you use those seven things and you actually use the teachings that
We have for them you will I mean inevitably be a good person a better person a better man a better leader just like Mason right trying to make you better person exactly exactly so it makes sense we see Freemasonry in the tenants of deole a little different like filal love
Is something that you don’t really hear a lot of uh in in Western thought like most eastern um religion is based on filal love like it’s all about don’t dishonor your family and you you bring shame to the family literally you’ll kill yourself for for doing that because
Right a reverence for for your family but you don’t hear it much here in the west and it’s your first one feel your love which is pretty very first very first one man you you wouldn’t be here without your parents you know um and just that by itself earns some respect
Now I mean you’re going to have those people that you know maybe their mom wasn’t in their life maybe their dad wasn’t in their life whatever else and I’m not going to say that you still got to you know treat them with the same respect as anything else that’s your
Battle to to fight not mine but um if you do have parents that are there for you and brought you into this world and help you know help you survive then you owe them the at the very least respect respect right but there’s another kind
Of filia love which is you know we have an Almighty parent and so you you could roll God into that right like your love for God and respect and reverence for God too is part of that feel you low right then you have reverence for sacred things wow that sounds cool reverence for
Sacred things reverence for all that is sacred a young man crossing the threshold of demolay For the First Time must Prof profess as a deep and Abiding Faith in one living and true God without the steadfast faith in the grace of our heavenly father AR toil would be for
Nothing that’s part of the ceremony of light that I was talking about yeah so basically you need it’s it’s promoting having a spiritual belief and and following following a code in that in that sense now you know it I think the most common is probably Christianity but we are
Worldwide so I mean there’s there’s diff there’s Demay of of all different religions you know that’s aesome it’s basically just promoting that promoting you know what you believe here again we see masonry because that’s a very basic tenant of masonry got to believe in a higher power
But we don’t care what path you take to get there uh courtesy I like that this is kind of an oldfashioned concept that a man should be courteous kind respect and philanthropy all kind of rolling into courtesy and uh I mean I I didn’t have a father growing up
Which is was work to my benefit because I used like television uh people that I saw as my role model for a man and obviously that’s not real but I I learn to open door for women to like you know be the last one in to lift things and carry
Things for people especially women um and so I ingrained that in my children my boys uh and I’m I’m so happy to see that this is part of the tenants or or the cardinal virtues of deole is it’s essential man just a little bit well I
Almost almost said it the wrong way just a little bit of of caring just caring about another individual and you know putting somebody else above yourself every once in a while you know yeah holding the door for that guy at racetrack that’s going into the gas station or whatever just little little
Things like that go a long way then you got you know comrad ship comrad ship that’s the biggest well I mean it’s the one that that is put the most focus on because we are a fraternity so any fraternity is going to promote Brotherhood uh having a sense of
Belonging with each other and and keeping each other accountable for things and uh different things like that so that’s why they put an emphasis on it being in the center of the seven because you know Millions yeah because of that camaraderie it should be should hold each other accountable and help each
Other every chance you get and the uh explanation I’m looking at says being a faithful friend not only in good times but also in hard times which is something which critically which also means which also means telling a friend when he’s messing up right you know it’s
Not just being there for him when he asks you for help it’s not just being there uh you know to to wh wise Council it’s to tell him hey dude you know what are you doing right this isn’t going to end well if you keep doing this
Man right I mean that’s something you do for people you care about nobody likes to have difficult conversations but no care about somebody it’s worth your time to try to help them um and that’s also important in masonry uh and it’s we talk about Whispering wise counsil in the ear of an
Airing brother I don’t know how many people do that these days but you know I’m glad to see that they’re starting with kids um well um a lot of people miss that part of whisper wise counsil in the ear instead of to stand an open
Meeting and say it in front of all the brothers whatever is on their mind sometimes hey you did that wrong EXA okay oh God here we go you know uh and then you’ve got Fidelity Fidelity yes fidelity so I mean doing what you say you’re
Gonna do you if you if you hold a promise to somebody keep it you know um whether it be the you know a promise to God a promise to to your friend to your parents whatever it is I mean just say do what you say you’re GNA do
Essentially Fidelity and so even the the Nam sake for the organization deole it comes from the man ja deole who is the grand the last Grandmaster of the Knights Templar um the last one the last one because the Knights Templar were disbanded uh sometime around
1313 um we did a whole section on the nights Templar go watch the episode because it’s there you go it’s awesome there you go I love the whole idea of the Templars what they stood for what they did in society that people have no concept of how important they were to
Our ideas of banking and uh oh my that that’s yeah like you said we could be on that topic forever we could be on that forever in in a day when briggins would routinely rob you and you had to get from A to B on a long trip you could leave your
Really expensive crap with people and pick it up when you got there like well y that’s that’s essentially what a bank is here’s my cash I’m gonna go pull it out of the ATM when I get to Monaco uh on my vacation and I don’t want to bring
My cash with me well there you go the Templars were doing it in the 1300s um right and sure they didn’t have a keypad or a pin code uh you had to actually use a secret word or a secret handshake to identify yourself right right right so now we get to like how
The Templars are infiltrating masonry uh because we have secret words and secret handshakes that we use to identify well on top of the fact that I mean these are all rumors and speculation but when it was disbanded you know all of those Knights had to do something so there’s
There’s talk about them going into into different workman’s guilds like maybe brick masons maybe my favorites is that they uh they had a huge naval fleet that was never recovered oh i’ I’ve heard this yes I mean it’s there’s a lot of evidence that they actually went to the Caribbean and
Yep and that the uh Pirates of the Caribbean are actually the descendants of the original Templars that disand I have heard that yes I have makes sense right they have a code that they live by the the pirate code and all this stuff I mean they would obviously not have had
The capacity to teach them to continue to be Templars but Generations later you would have had people that still live by some kind of a code because it would definitely pass that down but I digress Fidelity we’re talking about jacqu de mole died he he died uh basically upholding
His pledge to his brothers yep I mean and was offered all of the riches that he could imagine was was tried was was you know offered power beyond his imagination and just no I no give them up no right he kill me if you got to I’m
Not doing that no he died he had actually I believe um given some kind of a statement that he had done bad that they were bad um and upon you know thinking about it um when he came out and he was supposed to say all this stuff publicly recanted
And said no this is a bunch of BS we never did anything wrong we’re here for God and you know this is a bunch of you got you all you suck you suck you suck I’ll see you in hell and then he let be burned at the steak um sticking to his
Well it wasn’t necessarily that he came out with a statement and then recanted it was that somebody said he said this he’s like no I didn’t if you have documents saying that they’re purged like there’s no way that didn’t happen and you know they burn them at the steak
For it I mean these these Templars are being tortured for years it’s not like you spent a couple days in the cell they were torturing you for years to try to get you to say what just just to die just admit something so we’ll kill you
You know and uh when you get tortured beyond that point you’d say anything to to just make it stop right that’s what happened to most of those guys they they were tortured to the point that they would rather go against their order just to die then continue to be
Ted right I couldn’t imagine being in that situation man to be honest with you I mean yeah we’d all love to say that we would be jacqu deay and stand up on your principles like that but I don’t know no I don’t know if I can tell you that not
Like getting burned at the steak is an easy way to go no holy crap dude can you imagine and that’s after like seven years of torture that they did to him before he was burned at the Stak yeah no in his home country in France burned him
At the stake and the public was around to watch so wow that’s Fidelity then you have cleanliness yeah okay here we go yeah but not only the bodily cleanness right cleanness of every thought word indeed you know to actually you know think about things and not necessarily to use the
Foul language or or uh you know all the dirty stuff that we all try our best to stay away from but some of us don’t do a great job of it you know as long as you’re trying that’s all that matters nobody’s perfect right we call this Purity in masonry
They call cleanliness in deole but I think it’s kind of the same thing right yeah same thing same thing being Pure Heart pure motivations coming at things from a good uh purpose and we wear white to symbolize Purity in Freemasonry whites you know white glove treatment we’ve all heard it like associated with
Cleanliness um and finally patriotism a love for your country yep willingness to defend your country and your Homeland um including public spaces places schools asylums orphanages hospitals supporting people in need that’s all part of being a patriot right sure um and just living a good life in
Behalf of of your country you know um just being a better person because you’re an American or because you’re you know whatever uh you’re yeah inert country here you know to because essentially you being a better person is helpful to your country it is where you know what I mean yeah
You’re representing but so in deay for years it’s always the question you know the question that you just you quiz the deay with or whoever with if you had to get rid of one candle or one one virtue what would it be and most of the time
People’s answer is patriotism at the end of it because you know they think about it just meaning America or whatever else when really all seven of them are important but if you Encompass all the rest of them seven kind of just well seven will happen anyway yes you know
Yeah that makes sense but it doesn’t end with those Seven Virtues you’ve got uh deay defends three fundamental freedoms you’ve got do you I can’t I can’t quote them off the top we didn’t prep this you nailed those other ones I was like wow I didn’t
Expect you to know that as much as I better know those the the sevener talked about it every single meeting every yeah it’s it’s yeah you better know the seven right the three fundamental freedoms that Deo defends are religious freedom that’s represented by any holy book independent okay now I know what
You’re talking about all right yes civil Freedom yes and intellectual intellectual Liberties yes yes and civil that kind of you know there are three Ruffians in the uh Master Mason degree um and allegedly yeah uh there’s three Ruffians selling cigars I can tell you that there
You go by the way I got some people that want to try those I need to get with Sean or somebody it’s getting relaunched we’ve got we’ve got new uh wow this is really sidetracking now we got new I’m sorry new formulas uh and new wraps so actually it’s improved and cheaper we’re
Lowering the cost and increasing the quality so it’s going to be good awesome little something for everybody uh I still haven’t tried the original ones I mean I I haven’t either I’m not a cigar smoker so I could tell you but the people that know this stuff say that it’s it’s gotten
Better so I can’t wait we’re in the process of relaunching that soon stay tuned uhet but you know we in masonry we have people that try to take away three three times uh something important to you and when you go through the mentoring after the degree they kind of
Talk about how they’re what they’re this really represents is they’re trying to take away your freedoms in different aspect so you’ve got someone that’s trying to attack your ability to speak which is like a a civil Freedom you’ve got um uh someone that’s attacking your groin
Which is your family and and you know that’s the seed of your religious freedom and then you’ve got someone that’s attacking um your mind which is your intellectual Freedom if you think about it those Ruffians are directly into this when I see this I see the Ruffians H I’ve never thought about that
You know but there’s a good chance that the guys that putting together the ritual did I mean it was written by by Scottish Wright Masons makes sense and then you’ve got an ethical Cod composed of the following statements de serves God a d honors all Womanhood I like that one honors all
Womanhood like yes this is important stuff to teach young men that women aren’t your play things they’re to be honored and respected you know right as people a deole loves and honors his parents a Deo is honest a Deo is loyal to ideals and Friends a demle practices
Honest toil so you’re not going to be a gambler as a deole when you grow up you’re going to be earning an honest living something that’s legal and respected uh de his word is as good as his bond a Demay is courteous a Dem is
At all times gentlemen a Dem is clean in mind and body a Demay stands unswervingly for the public schools a deay always Bears the reputation of good and law-abiding citizen and a Demay by precept and example must preserve the high standards to which has he has pledged
Himself man I uh I sure could have used that when I was a young guy somebody me these values uh you know we get them I got them from television in a roundabout way but uh that’s uh PBS I guess was pretty good for for some of that yeah
Depending on which shows you were watching Street uh M Mr Mr Rogers neighborhood they were kind of teaching some of this stuff to kids but I don’t know they don’t get that today kids are really growing up on like YouTube stars and Instagram people and uh it’s far far
From this what they’re learning so yeah unfortunately but you know what you know never say never don’t give up hope one of those things I kind of see how important this is now more than ever that kids have a place where they can go to learn like to be honest and good and
Respectful kind but not only that like de is kind of giving them opportunities to learn leadership right like oh yeah absolutely so that’s kind of the for me that’s the point right um You you get a guy in because if you’re just coming there for a boring meeting and going
Home then you know what we what what’s the point so like right now we’re in restructure we’re not even I’m not even worried about ritual in most of the chapters in our district right now I want you getting the guys together planning a fun event and go do it
Meaning not you plan an event and tell the boys to come to it no you get with the young men that you have say hey what do you want to do okay well what do we need to do this okay first you need the what you’re doing okay then you got to
Facilitate the place okay is there a scheduling do we need to find a time to to do this you know do how much is it going to cost to do this okay how are you coming up with the money for this or are you expecting all the chapter
Members to pay their way you know all those things you’re helping the young men put those together and then run the event and then also communicate to all the members and whatever else so what I’d like to tell people is first you put somebody on a committee so a committee
Is making this plan to to plan this event okay and now you’re you’re a voice on this committee So eventually after you’ve been in a committee for so much well why don’t you try heading up this committee next time okay and then once you’ve headed up a committee and you you
Know you’re you’re responsible for you know facilitating the meetings and figuring out everybody’s ideas and putting it on paper and giving a report at the meeting okay eventually after you’ve done that so much now now go into a leadership role in the chapter become a counselor you know because now you
Know how to do different things you just have to put them all together wow kind of thing that’s and in in my opinion that’s how you build the Future Leaders and that’s how deay can build the Future Leaders there’s so much that goes into what you just described from
Like planning financially for something to managing personalities on teams to right dealing with um fail because if you let those kids do that stuff eventually something’s not going to work out and it’s going to be a show and that value is something they’re going to learn from and yeah as I am
Like I said I was only limited in my involvement in the Sarasota chapter I was for a few months um but what I saw was parents wanting to do all those things you just said the kid should do um and right that’s the problem that seemed to me like it was
Creating uh it was kind of like the opposite of what is supposed to be happening where what are the kids learning if parents are doing all that stuff it’s just daycare at that point right like exactly right that that’s not what deay is for yeah we’re not just
Here to watch your kids for you for for a little while um that’s that’s just not what we do don’t get me wrong we’re happy to but we’re g to have a purpose for it you know yeah imagine that place where your kid can go and try something
Out and try to be a leader and potentially fail and still get support after the failure to to show him that you can you can basically learn from your failures and it makes you stronger smarter and better the next time you do the thing that you failed at those are
Crazy important life lessons crazy important life lessons uh right and if if they don’t let the kids do that stuff they’re never going to learn those lessons yeah no it’s it’s is that right now it’s hard because I only had like I said limited exposure in deay and I saw
That as a problem in just a couple months I was exposed to it is this a big problem in D mle you would you say uh yeah I mean it’s we saw it whenever I was a kid you know uh advisers overstepping but there’s a fine
Line it’s not like there I mean there is a handbook but so I can’t say there’s not a hand there’s not a handbook telling you how to do this there there is but it’s it it leaves something to be desired in it I guess you know it
Doesn’t it doesn’t take into account the personal things with this cuz problem is you have so much you’re competing with now when I was a kid you had Boy Scouts Sports and Demay at least in in my what for what I knew about really now with uh with the
Internet they kids today have so many different options of what they can do to spend their time yeah um sitting in a meeting learning about leadership it’s usually not on top of their list right um which to your point when you were saying about advertising to the parents
Of the of the young men that’s why it’s so important because of course you’re not gonna you know a kid just wants to go on fortnite or whatever in the heck they’re doing now that’s all they want to do then yeah leave me alone I don’t
Want to go sit in the room with a bunch of guys telling me I’m a 40 better myself I’m about to be in in tomorrow I’ll be a 49y old man if you left me to my own devices I’d be sitting in a pile of my own feis within a couple months
Like we as men need to be pushed outside our comfort zones and especially even for kids uh because they have to learn at an early age they learn a lot faster when they’re young than an old guy like me uh to change now is going to be crazy
Hard but when I was 12 or 13 I was like clay you could have shaped me into a a great man uh if you took the time uh and and these kids have the potential to be great men they just need to be molded but the key I think the key
Problem is you have to have examples As Leaders yeah if you have poor examples As Leaders how could they how are they ever going to get those lessons I mean you know this is another thing to to teach to hit back on the worshipful master and just showing up yeah to
Things yeah I so now somebody can steal this idea and run with it I’m happy if you do uh I wanted to make an award for for Masons called the past worshipful Masters meritorious service award because Deo has a what’s called a past Master counselor meritorious service
Award basically you have to follow a strict guidelines on how to run your year and make sure you observe all obligatory days that you have you get you have to make sure that you all you and your off ERS know your parts from memory to do all the ritual work um you
Have to yeah get so many people in there there’s a whole criteria for it and then at the end of it you can say I got my PMC MSA I had a good term I would say year but it’s six months um so I wanted to develop an award like that but have
It Masonic youth base where the worful master has to attend x amount of masonic youth functions during his year has to show up to their installations has to go whatever else and be that face of masonry to the young men yeah that’s what I wanted to do I I’m not I’m not a
Lawyer I don’t I don’t speak legally and legislation writing is not my forte but uh if somebody else wants to do that and you know I’m happy to have a worshipful at the end to add a worship to the bottom of the legislation for yeah yeah
Well I’ll I’ll definitely if you like I can include your email uh on the podcast and if people want to reach out to you to help out with that they can uh sure yeah I Bennis Master 23 at gmail there you go now I’m G to get a bazillion
Email it’ be great ha hail the white Illuminati you’re gonna get all those now right it’s got master in oh man right oh yeah dang but you know dang it I think that when you look at DM now it’s 1919 so they’ve been around for a long time now and yep we
Just had our Centennial couple years ago I the way I got exposed to dla was through a man named Rusty Russell Glenn Denny um great man who was kind of somebody that became a I don’t want to say a mentor because he would probably not like that he he
Never mentored me but he was somebody that I watched closely and tried to like impress in Mason I don’t know what you call that uh an influence an influence he influenced me yeah yeah yeah and uh he was huge in Deo and uh one day oh
Yeah he sent me a video of him interviewing somebody for the um International Hall of Fame in deay and so I was watching him interview this famous person when he was a young man he was probably in his 20s when he was doing this interview which
Is crazy to see Rusty in his 20 I knew him as a 70y old man you know I was expecting to see it like a dinosaur walking behind him or something when I watched the video Yeah Jurassic Park plays in the background so I mean I went down a
Rabbit hole you have Walt Disney you have he was part of the original chapter actually yeah Bill Clinton you got so many famous people that are in the international Hall of Fame from sports stars to actors I mean I’m not going to name them all the Undertaker was a Deo actually and he
Turned down the uh Hall of Fame really yeah yeah he was he was approached for the Hall of Fame and he said because he did not base his wrestling career on how a deay should yeah should be he didn’t feel he he didn’t he didn’t want his his
His picture in that Hall of Fame for that he didn’t he didn’t think he was the he was the guy which I mean honestly there’s argument says that that’s an even better reason for him to be there but that’s very uh shival Rick of him to
Try to take road because most people if they’re offered any kind of opportunity to be in any kind of lasting thing to have their name in it they jump at it right so that means he learned the lessons I think of deole that’s impressive I didn’t know
That there’s a couple astronauts on here there’s several politicians on the list Pete Rose famous baseball player uh Air Force Captain philanthropist businessmen like these are impressive names that were part of this organization and people always ask they think de uh Bill Clinton was a Freemason but he
Wasn’t he was a Deo he was not he wasn’t deol though yeah he was not a Freemason which you know I guess you could say I think maybe being a deay is more impressive than being a Freemason because to get those lessons in your youth is probably going to make
You a better man than coming into it in your 30s and 40s and trying to learn how to be a better man when I was coming up it was a thing to put on your resume if you were a past Master counselor or anything like that you know it was
Something that um I was told anyway that that meant something um and I mean today as long as you word it right it does mean something if you think about it and you actually go into to detail while you’re filling out your resume what all you did what your duties were you know
It’s a lot it could look good for you it is a lot you you’re really a leader in your youth so um this is how i’ I I saw you doing some ritual work I asked you to help me with some ritual work you said yes with way short notice happened
More than once let’s be honest and uh I was like I don’t know what’s up with this guy but he’s some kind of savant and they said no no he was a deole uh like it’s known in Freemasonry if you were a deole you’re probably G to be a
Decent ritualist as a Mason is that fair to say right yes and no so I grew up with a ton of brothers that hated ritual and they knew their part for you know opening and closing if they had a part in in initiation they knew that and that was
It uh but in just like in masonry there are brothers that you know it it either comes naturally to or it’s just that something that they work toward to get good at or either way uh in my case I kind of had a natural
Thing to it and then also it was I I thought it was cool I like doing it it was one so for me it was something I worked at okay but uh no not all deay are ritualists but they have a an unfair Advantage you will say because they’ve
Had to memorize something since they were you know a kid I mean even de’s obligation I’m pretty sure is longer than the Master Mason really obligation wow I’m pretty sure it is and have to memorize that yep oh yeah they’re they have a question question and answer
Similar to what lodge has um but most of theirs is the obligation we were were as ours as a lot of things also there’s an obligation in it there’s there’s a couple of questions and then there’s an obligation you know do they do a proficiency like Mason yes they do okay
So now I’m not learned up on all of the rules like uh as I should be at the moment but when I was in you had to be proficient in order to vote uh in the lodge in the chapter you had to be proficient to compete in any competition
At conclaves or many conclaves via be it sport or ritual otherwise whatever it didn’t matter you had to be proficient to do anything basically um now I think it’s a little more laxed I think you still have to be proficient to compete either that or uh be working on your
Proficiency currently something like that um there used to be a proficiency jbu that we had at conclaves that you could take in lie of being proficient you just had to go sit through the class to help you learn your obligations and stuff uh then you could still compete
But um I think it’s a little more laxed now just because of you know we’re all hurting for membership at this point so if we can get Five Guys Like I said and just get them to start learning some stuff we’ll let any of them have a vote
Because it’s what they want to do it’s their organization not mine you know just because I think that they need to do this might not be right it’s their organization I’m just here to guide right and if i s them no I better have a good good reason right you know if you
Tell it as a as a CH as a deay adviser if you tell a kid no there has to be a reason you know you can’t just say no because you didn’t want to deal with that right now no there has to be a reason you know so a while back yeah no
Go ahead go ahead a while back we had a deal with um one of the chapters wanted to get ppal up like wanted to be able to have electronic form of uh getting money in you know fundraising wise um and one of the advisers was initially had said no
And I stepped in and I was like why is it a no like why because our bank won’t do that well we need to figure out what the problem is with that because any Bank should be able to do this um and eventually they were able to get it and
Whatever else but the the big thing is you know there sure there’s a reason that he said no because well that bank was telling us that we can’t do that okay that’s a legitimate reason why you can’t do but it’s still a problem that we need to solve that problem and it’s
You know we’re in the 21st century you know PayPal is a thing why are we with this Bank yeah move to another bank that will let us do this you know it’s very Progressive thinking you’ve got there uh I hope de moves quicker than lodges
Because that would be about a year and a half change to get them to move banks at a blue oh this didn’t happen overnight this was over months of time you know this is just the fact fast forward I’ve been around for a little bit but yeah how old are you
Now I am 29 I’ll be 30 in September God that’s crazy I mean I know you’re young yes but uh I don’t know I don’t know I guess we we talk so much I never really think about the age difference but we do have a pretty big age it’s a bit of a
Gap yeah bit of I didn’t realize that I didn’t realize how old you were I figured you were in your early 40s or late 30s yeah no man I’m going to be 50 soon it’s crazy yeah I see that you’re about to be 30 what so it’s like um you
Know you don’t have to be like uh a president of a huge multi-national organization to be a leader um you just got to be a good person right and like trying to live the tenants of this stuff because these kids need examples so and if you’re listening also
And you’re like I’m not I’m not on the level to be leading kids it’s like wait but are you because no one’s expecting you to be like a political leader or a Bill Clinton like you don’t have to be that to get involved in Deo what you
Have to be is somebody who wants to help the youth become better uh to grow into being better men that’s really all they’re asking of you right as an adult to be involved in the D right they just want you to good with kids and like support them and like
Teach them these values right right yeah and help them along where they need it now um and also knowing that being a leader doesn’t mean do everything yourself quite the opposite actually you know um everybody needs help doing not if you try to do everything yourself in
Anything whether it be Lodge Bay whether it be a sports team whatever it is you you’re going to burn yourself out now you might you might succeed at it for a little bit but eventually it’s going to come to a head yeah and then how do you repeat that like
What happens when you’re gone like right it needs to be you got to create a coalition of people and it needs to be a leader creates systems that can be passed down and replicated by other people not themselves right I mean and I’m a firm believer that one guy shouldn’t be in
Charge or one person shouldn’t be in charge forever it needs to you know so if you have an advisory Council and you have you know you have leadership in your advisory Council that needs to change everything few years you know just to get a new set of a new set of
Ideas out you know or whatever uh be it a chapter dad or advisory chairman or advisory Council chairman whatever um some people some chapters don’t have the luxury because you know chairman has to be a Master Mason and maybe they only have one Master Mason that’s an advisor
So that guy is stuck being the chairman forever because well nobody else is nobody else can do it you know that kind of thing but in most cases is like uh now it’s when I a little bit before I joined only men could be chapter dads or chapter advisor
The official chapter adviser the the liaison between the young men and the advisory council is the chapter dad or chapter advisor now now it can either be a man or a woman doesn’t have to be a Master Mason doesn’t you know whatever else and I’ve known some great women
That were awesome chter advisers and I’ve known some guys that really suck there so me too me too uh some of them were close to me uh I saw it firsthand even though I wasn’t terribly involved I did I did see some problems um and and you whenever I
See problems I assume that it’s not local that it’s probably stuff that you know that’s that’s like the first lesson I had in masonry all the negative things I saw I thought oh it’s just this Lodge or it’s just this guy nah like every district has a lodge like that every has
A guy like that you know what I mean these are systemic things it’s just a person problem that’s just the type of personality you have seems to always come down to being people as the problem right right so we need to be very careful about who we put in a leadership
Role with children um because if they see adults arguing with each other over what food’s going to be at an event or they shouldn’t even be having having that argument right that’s the stuff the kid should be deciding but they do argue over things like that they
Do right like that’s what the kids see and are going to take as an example of acceptable behavior so you you really do need to check I mean that should be like at at the that should be the entrance of every entryway into a lodge leave your ego here don’t
Bring it with you right yeah I no well as soon as it stops becoming about the young men you’re wrong like as as soon as it stops becoming about them you’re wrong you’re whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish stop because if it’s not for them then you’re wasting
Your time yeah you know um and you’re not going to do any good you’re gonna do more harm than anything um and I have seen unfortunately in deay at the chapter level all the way up to the state level where there are certain people that um maybe they didn’t get
That notoriety in blue Lodge but they could get it at deay and we have to stop that we have to do a better job at guarding the west gate as we say as Masons but you know for our advisers um we always need adult old lady just came in with the
Kiddos so you know F go so let’s talk a little bit about you now everybody knows generally what deay is now we did a pretty good job there I think explaining it to people it’s there’s a lot more to it for sure that we could go into but
That dude I yeah that’s a good like you know 40 minutes is a good synopsis of this is what it is is about sure this is what we stand for this is what you know and biggest question is how do we help how do we how do we keep going forward
And I think with the right people in place we can do that and we’re starting to get a a a good sense of that I think we’re in our district anyway of getting the right people for the right job I mean honestly as a marketing guy I see
So many ways to grow the membership that no one um I guess I really haven’t tried that hard to talk about it but I could see I mean we could blow deole up with just a little bit of effort um let’s do it it’s like you know you miss the part
That people don’t like to hear a little bit of effort like you’re gonna have to I’m not scared I know you’re not scared that’s why you’re in a position of leadership and you probably are the person I should talk to about my ideas because you could actually get them implemented in more
Than one I certainly try you can definitely whisper wise counsil into people’s ears uh right I can I can tester people I’m pretty good at that try to influence them putting in a positive way right but I do see this is needed um uh I think the parents would
Jump at the opportunity to have their kids be part of an organization like this if they knew about it they just don’t know about it um and I think the kids um once you get them in will want their friends to be part of it too once
They see what it really is and they kind of get the bigger picture so I think the the first hump is to get the parents to understand that this is a pretty lowcost way to get their kids a very high quality experience and $60 onetime membership fee depending on your chapter could be
More but for the most part like our chapter is 100 bucks but you get stuff out of it before that but it’s lifetime members Shee you don’t have to pay to be a member at all after that the only thing else that’ll come out of your pocket is whatever the boys don’t
Fundraise for it so if they don’t fundraise for it and they want to go to conclave well the chapter doesn’t have the money for it they want to go I mean you know one of those things if you better you got to figure out a way but
That’s why we you know try to tell these guys fundraise uh when I was in if we wanted to do something we had to fundraise for it um I walked up every single stair in the uh UCF Arena multiple times as a kid selling peanuts at The Shrine Circus because it was one
Of our biggest fundraisers I shucked corn at a zelwood at at zelwood for the zelwood Corn Festival every year because we needed to do we wanted to go do things so we had to do things to make money for that and that’s part of the experience I think is actually having
It’s not all fun in game sometimes you got to work that’s you’re teaching responsibility and like how to actually get something done because that’s going to be the case throughout your whole life you’re always going to need money to do the things you want to do and it
Might require some hard work to get it and then you know I was there are so many communities where kids just don’t have opportunities opportunities to like really be in a position of leadership within their own peers they just don’t would never have it even in Sarasota
There’s a community that I wanted to hit aggressively because I know it’s full of kids that would with an opportunity to learn public speaking skills and um organization leadership skills it would be a a game changer for their future life um and you’re talking about $50 in
Sarasota chapter $60 in Venice it sounds like life it’s 100 in Venice 100 sorry 100 but that’s for life from 12 to 21 that’s the only investment it’s going to cost you to get all these lessons and experiences I there’s just nothing comparable out there uh for a kid that can offer that
Kind of quality for that price sorry right um there there are other organizations don’t get me wrong like uh Boy Scouts of America is an organization and they do a lot as well uh they were founded by Masons also that’s another organization I when I was
A kid it was always said boy scouts teaches you how to survive in you know outdoor environment in the wilderness although that’s not 100% true they also have core values too to help help with your day-to-day for de is going to more prepare you for a business life um and
And just life in general right which I think it’s kind of sort of that’s a watered down version of explaining it uh because deay can be whatever you make it you know they can teach whatever you know yeah whatever subject the boys need to learn about um I’ve seen it I’m on
Social media a lot so I see a lot of deay chapters doing like well like like you did you did a uh a fundraiser that involved paintball and uh right like shoot an adult and get you know hey here’s for x amount of dollars you can
Shoot Tim or you shoot Chris and uh the kids do it and that’s a fundraiser that’s fun uh but they got to organize it and they got to promote it and then they gotta you know get people to show up and have food you organized the one
That I went to there was two things going on I believe there was a a chili competition or some kind of food competition and cheese mac and cheese I actually didn’t have anything to do with that I showed up um I was I was a Target I did not but
Credit were credit is due the boys had that uh put that that all together um and the advisors helped it along I had a I took a backseat um for the last couple of years with the chapter uh because I had some stuff and I still have stuff
Going on you family LifeWise that I had to deal with that had to take precedent um but man it it’s it’s I was really glad to see that event was a success you know the boys showed up they worked it now they I think they made a good little bit
Of a little bit of money at that event I’m not sure the exact numbers um and it was uh Bob gon’s wife that won it too and that was cool and you know and we got to eat really good uh mac and cheese and then we got shot with paintballs you
Know yeah Bob gon uh is a Mason from Englewood l Englewood number 360 360 uh and I believe he’s like senior Deacon or Junior Warden something like that Junior Ward Bob’s Junior Warden now gotta go to his installation uh because Bob is in our district that I see is being a
Leader um not just in his lodge but also in the district a really good examp no right he’s yeah right he’s a business owner too I mean you know just he seems like a very solid person uh he is I always in masonry try to surround myself
With people that I felt were solid people so he was one of the guys that I try to bring in to my circle so someone that I could you know talk to about things um right and to survive the year I had when I was Master I needed that I
Needed you and Bob and bar heart and you know Tom don’t get it twisted I needed you too shoot I called you several times for different things for one thing or another you know it went both ways we’re kind of like all in it together you know we’re all moving the same direction
We’re all trying to get the same kind of stuff done we just happen to be in positions of leadership in our little patch of dirt at the same time which was for is for us because we worked together really well it was no problem I never
Felt a I’m I’m still so proud of of what we accomplished last and uh we had like a healthy rivalry and then there are unhealthy rivalries where it’s like you start to teach people that those people are bad and these people are good I’m talking about young guys coming up and then
Lines um and some of that had happened in our district I mean I was part of it I saw it and again that’s like not anything unique to us it happens in every District there’s always lodes like that um happens in more than one group I
Mean it’s not just that does that you know you can go in any group it’s because yeah men and our OS and our little pics and quarrels and all the things we get caught in uh as you’ll learn in life as anybody will learn and light people suck you
Know y all suck no one wants to admit it but we suck too you know yeah yeah me included we all suck you know that’s what I was kind of getting at because you’ve been a leader in a lodge now you’re a leader in in a a wider area for
Another organization and your leadership is going to continue into the future you’ll certainly be um leading in Freemasonry for a long time in different capacities are you would you I need to start learning the the the two-letter word a little bit better uh but yeah probably I’ll probably always have a job
Doing something you will I hope I hope you will um if anyone is listening and you’re in the State of Florida he gave his email address contacted F because he would be a great leader in anything in the fraternity uh he might tell you no
If he’s smart but uh I think he’d be great at it so please contact him but you know would you consider yourself a perfect man or or or some kind of example in your personal life for someone to hold up like I don’t for myself nope I’m well aware of my
Issues and I I’ve got several no there’s a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t emulate me like we’re not perfect people here but the thing is is like we’re trying and this is what Masonry and it sounds like what de mle is about which is you
Got to be trying if you’re not trying do your best yeah just do your best and and and get outside your comfort zone do things that are hard for you to do that you don’t want to do sometimes and we’ve both done a lot of that service right
That’s what servant leadership is really it’s like you know if if I could have done everything I wanted to do I would have had a much easier year uh yeah I just said no this is how it’s going to go shut up up sit down enjoy the ride
But it wasn’t like it was much more you can’t run a lodge like that we’ve seen that in the district how you cannot run a lodge like that because that this is a volunteer organization it just does not work that way correct you know some people had to learn that the hard way
You know there are people that I saw not make it through their entire year as a master of a lodge because their Lodge essentially revolted against that because of the leadership or of leadership that they tried to instill um and you know that’s that’s again that
Goes back to the culture of the lodge because how does somebody get to be master and not know that that’s not going to work and the only way is if you’re in a culture that keeps that kind of thinking going it doesn’t happen just one person like
This is a that’s probably been a problem for generations of officers in that Lodge for that person um to get to that place but you can always write that ship you can always turn it around all it takes is some guys that want to move in a positive
Direction and they can do it like you said D de is whatever the kids want it to be and honestly a lodge is like that a lodge is whatever the people running it want it to be and the brothers that show up want it to be it could be
Anything and you can change it anytime all you got to do is stand up and use your voice and be the change you want to that’s right and be the change that you want to see if you want to see something do it you know yeah um if you want to if you
Want to see Masons meeting outside of Lodge and having a couple of cigars and some some beverages with each other well do it plan it you know have it have at it if you want to you know grab a bunch of kids and go bowling on a Saturday
Well figure out how you’re going to pay for it and go do it you know um it’s pretty simple when you think about it that really is yeah you just have to make the decision to do it like you said so tell me a little I mean we
We got probably like four minutes left here I’m already 30 oh do we have we been going for an hour and 30 almost and uh I I only asked for for an hour of Tim’s time so I’m like uh way past now what he gave us oh you’re good I still
Got 20 minutes until I gotta leave for Lodge all I gotta do is throw a tie on so I’m good you got to go to watch Entered Apprentice degree tonight I believe I’m sitting on the side I think yeah that’s funny that you think that I am I think I’m either sitting on
The sidelines or I might be a conductor but I think there’s only two candidates I I don’t know so there’s a chance there’s a chance I could be conducting but I think I’m on the sidelines text me and let me know what chair they put you
In when you get there I’m really curious now no no no they’ve had several practices they did a good job on this one I I think it’s going to be a candlelight degree they got dispensation so they can uh you know do all that so they better have all the shars filled I
Would think that would be you know step one so uh you’re 29 you’re you’re your past master of a lot you’re now in a leadership role in De what what do you what do you do for fun what are your hobbies like how do you like uh because it’s a lot of
Pressure Freemasonry can be a second job when you take it as seriously as you do so like how do you decompress what do you do for fun believe it or not um it’s it’s a I I got so much stuff going on that sometimes Demay is what I need because
It makes me focus on something else and get my mind off of what I got going on with all the other crap you know so it’s like like I said last year last year was a rough year for me personally Lodge was the only thing right that I had going so
It was a nice Escape for me masonry even though it is a job it’s a nice Escape for me uh but I play pool every Wednesday oh I have a pool table in my house I actually play every day just about I play on a league uh every Wednesday occasionally I get together
With some friends and run um Dungeons and Dragons um that kind of thing actually the picture right there was from a campaign I was in I was uh a character in at a brother Aaron Rowan he’s the senior no he’s the junior Steward of uh Venice Lodge okay he ran a
Sunday game and that was I think I was in that campaign for two years wow and uh yeah so he had those made for all of the uh all of the players in them That’s So Co um I’m just so happy to hear um because I’m old and I wasn’t even the
Original generation that played Dungeons and Dragons like I was playing no second and third Edition rules by the time I was playing like you know that started in the 70s I think when I was born uh and it just makes me so happy to see that it’s still going on that that
People still get together and Dungeons and Dragons is no joke okay you gotta learn a lot to be effective at Dungeons and Dragons there’s a lot of rules well I mean sure you can show up and role play haha but if you want to be a good
Player you need to know what a constitution check is you need to know you know there’s a lot of things you but it’s it’s fun too I mean it depends on your table there’s different Dynamics for every table it is you know if you want to go and play competitive D and
Yes you need to know all that yeah but if you just want to have a good time on a Friday night with a bunch of your friends and goof around and maybe kill a couple of goblins or a dragon or something or save a damsel you know I’ve
Actually had nights where you didn’t kill anything where we you know they played different types of uh poker using Dice and it was a all role playay kind of session stuff I mean it’s it’s whatever you want it to be you know um so it doesn’t you don’t necessarily have
To know all the rules it’s my job as a DM to know the core rules and know how how things are supposed to work and help the characters that uh maybe because you know I get a lot of new people s people have never played before help them you
Know I need you to make a constitution saving throw where’s that go to Constitution go to saving throws go to Constitution it’s plus five whatever roll a D20 and add the five to it it’s you know stuff like that so yeah you don’t necessarily have to know all the
Core rules it’s nice if you eventually you know pick up on them but no I don’t think it’s a requirement so when he said he’s a DM that means dungeon master that means he’s the guy running the show he he basically has to role play for all of the non-player characters that you’re
Going to encounter whether the good guys or bad guys you’re you’re playing them and you’re you’re ultimately deciding what happens to every character good or bad um you make the final decision on that so it’s a it’s a big job uh to take on being dungeon master and I like to do
It a little differently so the way I see it is the players are building the story I’m just facilitate I’m setting the setting I’m I’m putting the setting in but they’re deciding what they’re doing and you know I I run kind of a Sandbox I don’t run a railroad you guys are going
Down this road now and you know do you go left or right no what are you guys doing you know this is what you guys see what are you doing it’s more along more along those lines I think that makes for a much more enjoyable experience for everybody because they’re they feel like
They’re creating something together but it’s a Different Strokes for different folks though not everybody likes that it’s much harder for a dungeon master to run a game that way because it’s much easier to just say I have every encounter planned out and this is what
We’re going to do for four hours and do it it’s much harder so to not know what you’re getting into you have a rough idea probably you gotta you gota you got you gotta point right so it’s actually easier for me for that reason right so I
Tried running the modules and my problem was not remembering who this guy’s name was that’s important because on this other page you know in the next chapter you got to know who that guy’s name is because they gotta find him and all that yeah knowing all that and trying to
Remember all that it’s it’s a watch because your characters are going to pick option C either way any way you do so I’d rather it just be more of an improv based and so I try not to over plan I have ideas of what I what my guys
Are going to run into uh and I’ll have things that maybe I can move around that you you’re still G to run into this thing even if you go that way but you know whatever uh that’s more along the lines of what I do I don’t do the you
Know plan a whole dungeon thing where it’s nothing but a Dungeon Crawl and you got know where every trap is and every monster I don’t I have done it it I hate it so it’s a lot of work I tend to I’m more of an open world kind of guy myself
That’s fun and and uh I noticed that now um they give bonuses for role playing like it wasn’t like that when I played you were expected to roleplay depending on your master yeah depending on the dungeon master so you can do yeah well yeah it’s a inspiration is what it’s is
What it’s typically called uh you can do a lot of different things to in incentivize it like what I’ve done instead of just giving somebody inspiration saying uh instead of saying I want to hit that guy with my axe I’m gonna do a backflip over this guy do the
If you’re explaining to me how you’re getting there how you are you know doing that then I’ll give you an extra it might be a harder rooll you might have an acrobatics check on top of it but if you land it well then you get extra x
Amount of damage on top of it depending on how cool the thing was that you did you know so there’s different ways you can incentivize roleplay to to your players as a via I think the best way is to do it yourself right like when you
Play a character you play him with an accent you play him like you do something and that pulls the you know the old Master of Disguise become another person Mantra yeah and for me I always like I’m drawn from movie characters that I like right like I’m
Might have a Scottish accent and I’m doing like a you know some kind of a what was his name he played James Bond I always imagine that guy is like uh con I would do I would do Sean connory they had no idea but that’s what
I was playing right but you pull from your life and things and you kind of like you know method acting I guess they call right but uh no other than that so pool D and D um and I like to hang out with some friends of mine and uh have a
Beverag or too on occasion um that kind of thing I’m pretty simple nowadays I don’t have a whole lot of time for a lot of things so sure between work and family and Mason you don’t have a lot of time for hobbies uh like I said I got I got a
Couple that I do and H you know hyper fixate on them but I have ADHD so I also do martial arts and stuff and I so I got a million other things but it’s like what am I focusing on this week I didn’t know that what style
Yep uh well I’m in a couple um I’m in Roku kmo through a master out of Jacksonville that I started with when I was a little kid and I still talk to and then uh H worship or Hampton crimmy uh teaches a sanoku bu Jitsu Ren and I was
In his class for a while and I still practiced some of his kot and stuff even though we’re not meeting on on any regular basis anymore um but yeah a couple of different ones all OK and K for the most part so you’re training in standup and grappling both yes yes and I
I’ve done a little bit of um small circle Jiu-Jitsu which goes hand inand with uh that and then um you know I’ve I’ve done a very small amount of uh modern arnes or kie it’s a different form of kie Filipino sck fighting kind
Of thing I’m not I suck at it I’m I I tell people my IQ drops 30 points every time I grab one of those sticks when I’m at a seminar it’s like uh uh but I I feel like I could do better than just a random person that maybe never picked up
A stick before you know I mean that’s kind of the key to martial art that’s what I tell people they think they think oh you’re you’re deadly weapons hands it’s like no I could definitely beat somebody that’s never trained before you know that’s the advantage of training you’re better you’re hopefully
Gonna be better than that uh but you put me in a competition with other guys that have been training and it’s goingon to look pretty pathetic right yeah no I’m I’m out on that I don’t do turn uh I’m out now I’ve also seen a lot of pictures of you in a
Leather vest with a widdow son cat ah yes so I’m assuming you ride motorcycles I am a motorcycle enthusias I do have an Indian Chieftain in the garage that I do get to take out from time to time and go right I haven’t been doing that as much recently so it wasn’t
At top at the Forefront but uh yeah I just I used to see that’s how I used to see pictures of you online you’re always doing Widow son stuff uh before I right yeah yeah that was before I was Master you I had a lot more time to do all R I
Do love it I get to go to I forgot about a meeting yesterday I still feel bad about that I missed it but uh I’m starting to get back involved with that too now that I’m out of the East and I get a little bit more time as far as
That goes but uh that’s a whole another group we got to talk about one day the Widow Suns fascinating Widow Suns is is a fun fun group I like that I like the Widow Suns a lot a lot of great Brothers in them um motor cor is also a lot of
Great Brothers there a lot of the same Brothers a lot of similarities between the groups um one’s a standalone that’s technically not a dependent body at all and not a masonic body at all it’s just a a body with masons in it uh then you know motor core is a shrine
Unit now I appreciate you giving me your time and coming on the show again to talk about deay which I know is something that’s important to you and has been for a long time oh yeah um hopefully people learn something about it uh from show and hopefully if they
Know somebody that has kids between the ages of 12 and 21 they’ll uh they send them to be a.org where they can learn about deay I’m sure on that website they can even inquire about joining a chapter near them um and hopefully get involved
You uh you’ve done a lot for a 29y old um in in masonry especially uh been the master of a lodge you know you’ve been in several appendant bodies and you’re in a leadership role in one of them uh I think what you the term you’re looking
For is I’m a sucker yeah no I get wasn’t the word I was gonna use I was gonna use leader you’re a leader and uh I appreciate you have a platform here where you can speak to Masons all over the world um we gave your email address
So I’m gonna I’m gonna encourage people to reach out to you with questions they might have um whether it’s St being um a master of vage or an officer or being involved in deole or any of that stuff they they you know you have a lot of experience in this area so
I hope they uh there’s certain things that I’m better at than others man um I I I had a good year I did my best but I’m not if you’re looking about the guys that know all about all the reports that you got to do and uh the th that aspect
Of of being a master I would direct your attention to somebody else because I had a mentor that was helping me the entire time get through that um but as far as you know managing people I’m halfway decent at doing that a lot of the time and uh managing events
That kind of thing I’m I’m decent at um and deay I’m I’m happy to answer any questions I can with deay too yeah um we have to go but I want to give you the opportunity to speak last is there anything that you’d like to share with the listeners that are probably Masons
Uh wisdom for them that we can leave them with on the way out um once again support Masonic youth they are our future with you know without them what do we have uh we we are not in the situation where we have enough members to where we don’t need to build
The future um and we’ll never will be so um find a local demon lay chapter and do what you can whether it’s financial support whether it’s just showing up and being an extra hand uh whether it’s helping uh with you know if you have a young man in your life and get him
Involved and not just EMA but also job’s daughters and the rainbow girls look into those as well I don’t know as much about those two so I won’t talk too much on them but they are also great organizations that need help as well well thank you thank you for being on
The show um thank you for the year thanks for having that we had together everything that you did for me and um I hope you come back yeah brother I appreciate you man anytime you know give me a call Tim F Dawn this is it for on the level podcast join us next
Time see Oh
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