From The East April 2024

I recently took a trip to California to visit some mason friends from my days there. I mentioned how lucky I felt that in moving to Maryland I found a neighborhood that has a strong sense of community and a lodge that makes me feel welcome. My brother mason told me that since Covid, he has felt distant from his lodge and LA has little sense of community for him. The pandemic made it so easy to switch to virtual for meetings, work, even social events, that getting together with friends and brethren has become less frequent. The costs of living has pushed people into working more hours and getting less out of it. While some people thrive in the digital environment, many are left feeling lonely and that these online interactions are less emotionally fulfilling.

I encourage you to come to lodge meetings. Come to dinner beforehand too! Come to our social events. Start to rebuild the community of masons that we had pre-pandemic. I don’t care if your ritual is rusty, we’ll help you out. I don’t care if you haven’t been around in a while, we will welcome you with open arms. The fraternity is YOURS. These good men are your brothers and if you are feeling left-out, unfulfilled, lonely, or bored – come to the lodge! We want you to feel part of something important again!

It is encouraging to see our members take initiative and I encourage each of you to find something you enjoy, that you can share, and that you can use to the benefit of our lodge and our community. Your brothers will support you in that endeavor and we will all be better off for it. Our Junior Warden has done that with the blood drives that continue every 2 months. I have done that with starting a supper club (first Friday most months) to socialize with MoCo masons. And now, it is with pride I share that another Pentalpha member has stepped up to organize and run a lodge activity for us!

Our Junior Deacon, has identified an opportunity for a fund-raiser, presented it to the lodge, and will be coordinating the return of the pancake breakfast! April 13th, Saturday, from 8am-11am, we’ll be slinging hash and flipping hot cakes for your gastronomical delight! Please put it on your schedules and let’s get together to start our Saturdays together! We plan to continue this monthly on the Saturday after our first meeting (4/13, 5/11, 6/15) and through the summer if it looks like it’s catching on. Bring your appetite and your wallet. We’ll be taking $15 per adult for food, $8 for kids under 12.

These opportunities to participate in lodge events are the start of building the community that you are missing. Whether working side-by-side with your brothers to run events, or just coming to attend them, you will start to re-create the bonds that the pandemic and our ever-so-busy world has been breaking down. It is important to commune with your brethren. It is important to share your time with them and their families. It is important to have a community that you feel is yours and in which you belong. There’s a space for you at Pentalpha. You are wanted here, not for what you can do for the lodge, but just because you are a brother!

Brian Viehland, PM
Worshipful Master
Pentalpha Lodge No. 194