Post by stewartedwards on Oct 15, 2011 2:12:31 GMT 9.5
Tamrin, please forgive me for placing several questions together, but I am curious to find out a little more about you if you are willing.
1. Given that you have admitted on here that some of your brothers get very angry with you over your stance on women in freemasonry, and your stated goals of being here, why do you do it? Clearly I am trying to understand your motivations, and why you have taken it upon yourself to crusade (I mean why dont all Kadoshs do what you are doing for example). What makes Tamrin so different?
2. If you remember back to my early to mid days on tfm, for a period of a year or so whenever I made a post the number of active viewers would visibly increase from (made up figure) of 12-20 to fairly often well over a hundred and sometimes (genuinely, get someone from tfm to check the sever logs or his memory) around 350 in the minutes immediately following my posts , falling over the minutes that followed back to normal. Now whether you believe this or not doesn't matter, just assume it is true, which it is and you can check it as noted above. How do you explain it? Here I am looking to understand how you rationalise things.
3. How would you like to see the Craft of Freemasonry develop over the next few decades? Why?
You are a fascinating character Tamrin.
A Simple Man, who tried and failed to reilluminate this planet.
Slogging Scotsman Ma’at Ankh Re
Who am I trying to kid for I can’t even resolve family darkness. Whoever is next to step up, please do.
1. Campaign to have women admitted to mainstream Freemasonry: There are many wrongs in the world and often opponents asked why I do not address whatever wrong that happens to occur to them (about which they rarely seem to be sincerely much concerned). Some injustices do indeed cause greater suffering than the exclusion of women from mainstream Freemasonry and I will support such causes, at least with my assent.
However, with some causes, one feels that without their active support the cause would not be addressed, it would not even rate as a cause. In such cases, efforts to correct that particular injustice, or to at least to bring it to and maintain it in the attention of others, becomes a duty, as without your advocacy the injustice would persist. As Dag Hammarskjold said “A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.”
Such was the situation in my region over a quarter of a century ago, when I first began to question why women were excluded from our institution (one which prides itself on principles of inclusion). I was dismayed to find that not only was the excuse generally given willfully wrong (that there were no women medieval stonemasons and that we were bound by their customs and usages) but that their exclusion was contrary to my understanding of Masonic philosophy, which might be summed-up in the word, “Unity.”
Overall, my self-appointed brief is not for women per se, but for anyone facing inappropriate discrimination. I might just as easily have became an activist for the cause of Prince Hall recognition but, by the time I understood the injustices giving rise to that particular cause, I found it was already well in hand (notably including Brethren from South Australia).
2. Increase in viewers following posts: Possible mundane factors include the following:
Warped coincidence might be one factor. The mind is adept at seeing patterns even where there are none. “Hits” tend to be noticed and their significance exaggerated but “misses” are often disregarded when considering such “patterns.”
Timing might be another factor. Am I correct in understanding tfm was or is a UK based forum? If so, the time you find convenient to post, may well coincide with the time others find it convenient to get on their computers. If any real, proximate increase was directly to do with your posts then the same phenomenon should be evident on more international forums.
Controversy might be yet another factor. Did you tend to post at particular times? If so, fans and opponents knowing your habits may have been “tuning in” at such times to catch your latest posts.
Communication might be still another factor. The on-line Masonic community overlaps on several sites. Your posts may have been commented upon elsewhere, drawing viewers.
3. How would you like to see the Craft of Freemasonry develop over the next few decades?
My vision is one of focus on what makes the institution unique, putting that vision into practice and communicating it to both masons and non-masons. What is it which makes us unique? Our philosophy.
One thing I stress is that Freemasons have no monopoly on Freemasonry: The great initiation is life itself and Freemasonry but serves as a model giving insights to our origins, present condition and future. Our rituals set forth important lessons about life, and the way we conduct our affairs has significant sociological implications. Chief among the social evils set forth in that model are ignorance, superstition and tyranny.
Our method of presenting that model and those lessons turns the traditional method of instruction on its head. Instead of one teacher instructing a classroom of students, we have a lodge of initiates focusing on one candidate and involving him or her in all domains of learning: Cognitive, providing knowledge and requiring some memorizing; Behavioral, conducting them through specific dramatic enactments; Affective, arousing their feelings with different tests and challenges; and, beyond the usual domains: Prioritative, changing basic values by stressing inclusion and unity; Aspirational, giving the individual cause to believe that he or she is worthy and capable of growth and achievement; and, finally, Spiritual, the united goodwill of those present being focused on accepting and including that particular individual not only into their lodge but into the ranks of those who choose to commit themselves to be builders in and of this life.
