How Exciting!

Greetings and Salutations Brethren from the East.

I am humbled and honored to have been elected and installed as your Worshipful Master of Trenton Cyrus No. 5 for the 2022 Masonic Year. It has been a rewarding and fulfilling journey through the chairs. I am following in the steps of all who have come this way before and will strive to continue the traditions of Fellowship, Brotherly Love, and Charity. I pledge in conjunction with the entire 2022 Officer Line to put in the work and make our lodge stronger with the members and community. The pandemic which we have been living through has made the work we do daunting and at times frustrating with new variants and restrictions. But as Masons, we always find a way to get it done!

The beginning of a New Year brings about new journeys, positions, family situations, birth of a child, death of a loved one. The leaving of a vocation and beginning a new one. Elevation of a title and gaining a new moniker as you leave a position. Change is constantly occurring and with those changes new relationships form and in turn diminish. This is the way of things and when a New Year comes about some are glad to see the past year fade into the sunset. It depends on how you look at change, to retain treasured memories or forget to start anew.

Robert Burns wrote a poem about starting new journeys when he wrote “AULD LANG SYNE”. He was a Mason in the St. David’s Lodge No. 174 in Tarbolton, Scotland circa 1781. Auld Lang Syne is a concrete expression of his love of mankind and his ideal of International Brotherhood. Auld Lang Syne was written in Scots language; the English translation means “Old Long Since”. So, what is the meaning of the poem? We have here a series of rhetorical questions, all amounting to the point that unless you are completely dead inside, you should be able to appreciate the virtues of reconnecting with old friends and thinking about old times. We have heard it on many occasions from New Year’s parties with friends to Dick Clarks’ New Year’s Eve Specials on TV.

AULD LANG SYNE

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne?

The bible has many quotes and verses that speak of change and new journeys. One that is heard spoken is from the King James Bible Psalms 23:4.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”

I sat and watched a movie with my son “Night at the Museum 3” and in it Robin Williams plays Teddy Roosevelt and he is having a conversation with Ben Stiller whom plays Larry. It’s the end scene and goes as follows.

Teddy: It's time for your next adventure.
Larry: I have no idea what I'm going do tomorrow.
Teddy: How exciting....

So, my brothers what will you do tomorrow or in the New Year? Will you forge new acquaintances, revive old ones? Start a new job, or leave one and go into business for yourself? The analogies are endless and to quote Teddy Roosevelt “How Exciting!........

Sincerely and fraternally,
Nicholas Lamson
WM Trenton Cyrus No. 5