Masonic Sadness: What Could Be . . .

by Midnight Freemasons contributor

S.K. Robert Johnson

Hopping into my Jeep every Monday night is a joy. I’m on my way to the lodge. As I drive there I have plenty of time to just think about Freemasonry, Brethren, and what everyone will be talking about. I think about Past Masters and how they are doing, I think about ideas I can bring before them for events since I am on the events committee. You see, like I said, I have plenty of time to think since the drive is about thirty-five minutes.

About ten minutes into the drive, I get a little bummed every time though. You see, this is where I pass my brother-in-laws house. I know he’s a busy man with lots to do, but I can’t help but wish I was picking him up to go along and to share in the fellowship we hold so dear. This is my “Masonic Sadness”. It is the wash of feelings that come to you when you want to share something with a good friend or brother, but they aren’t ready.

Patience is something I have an abundance of, I do have 3 boys under the age of five running around my home. You see, I joined a lodge “of my own free will and accord”, I am to my knowledge, the first Freemason in my family. I had no friends that were Freemasons before I came into the fraternity either. My father and mother separated and later divorced when I was a child and my mother remarried a military man. He was with me for 2 years before he passed. He was a great father while he was with us.

So you see, in my life I have had the fortune of having a grandfather, uncles and other family men to look to and I could pick and choose the attributes that I would make my own. But this too left a sadness in me. Because in the place one is first prepared to be a Freemason, I knew there was something else for me.When I joined the lodge, all of in a sudden, I had more positive male influences than you can imagine. The generational gap provided a lifetime of experiences to draw on, and to take lessons from them.

As I pass my brothers house on the left, on his corner lot covered in this seasons autumn luster, yes I become saddened, but only for a moment, because I know that one day there may be a time when we can share this together and in the meantime, I also have my true and faithful lodge brothers, in who’s safety and friendship I will confide. 

~RJ

Sir Knight Robert Johnson is a Freemason out of the First North-East District of Illinois. He belongs to Waukegan Lodge No. 78. He is also a member of the York Rite bodies Royal Arch, Cryptic Council and Knights Templar. Brother Johnson currently produces and hosts a weekly Podcast (internet radio program) Whence Came You? which focuses on topics relating to Freemasonry. In addition, he produces video shorts focusing on driving interest in the Fraternity and writes original Masonic papers from time to time. He is a husband and father of three. He works full time in the safety industry and is also a photographer on the side as well as an avid home brewer. He is also working on two books, one is of a Masonic nature.