DIASPORA: THE ORDER AT HOME

We might believe we actually have a single familiar home. But freemasonry explodes that notion by putting our lives into a universal context. The moment we sign on, we become part of a legacy, a diaspora wandering into self-evidence with a considerable amount of uncertainty.  To do this, part of the mason has become impenetrable. On that we rely.  Regardless of circumstance, if a person has the resilience and intelligence, silence becomes a disguise to allow us to disappear on demand.  So often the taunts of conspiracists fuel mischievousness. As if the fertile culture of Britain where follies and mad dogs found a welcome, masonry had everything it needed to regain and renew a sense of purposefulness at any moment.

 It is the willingness to see oneself as slightly different that makes a mason complete his part of the bargain. Long ago men and women noticed wanderers for whom adventure made them chafe in the confines of the rules.  They were the embodiment of rule breakers. Questioning orthodoxy, asking questions, probing. Publicity, drawing attention was painfully isolating, so they stayed safely and innocuously underfoot. But what scandal this provoked when their association's we found out. Relationships beyond convention violated the coercion of class stratification. Mixing with our betters undermined social controls.  Cats lying with dogs; sheep with wolves.