by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor
Brian Daniel Mounce
There will come a dusk, when the wanning moon lethargically saunters into the darkening sky, that your feet forever falter, failing to traverse terra. For some, this is a somber, forlorn moment. For others, an intangible paradise. One may not profess certainty when faced with the abyss, but one may advance his bare foot into darkness with conviction. Yet, what we do in preparation for that final peregrination is paramount. Such preparation is forged by how one chooses to live his life.
Lamentably, many strive for remembrance, sometimes through malcontent. So too, others strive to model idols: molding one’s own life after celebrity and stardom; desiring not light, love, and aletheia, but fame or notoriety. Many others instead yearn for an ultimate justice; transfixed upon fixing whatever he perceives to be broken, damned be ye who opposes such a stalwart, just cause. As the old saying goes “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”. The retort, coined by Orwell, which I unequivocally support, “[w]here’s the omelet?”. However, no matter how one fashions his life, he will be dust upon the annals of history.
“This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down.”
-The Hobbit, J.R. Tolkien.
A famous locution from the Little Corporal ambivalently pontificated “[m]en will risk their lives, even die for ribbons.” He’s not wrong. Nevertheless, there will come a day when even Bonaparte shall be forgotten. Michael Jordan, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson. Lost. Founding Fathers like Roger Sherman and Patrick Henry already begin to slip forever from the morasses of the soluble, inscribed mind. And so, we search for meaning, purpose and inquire.
Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, Locke, John Stuart Mill, Rousseau. They all have a point; an amiably crafted way to live one’s life. And again, they too will be forgotten. Their works lost, tarnished, ground into stump. Even the great stones upon which we carve will fade.
This is not written to affix a lugubrious expression upon the one’s face, merely to provide sobriety; perhaps, more importantly, an assurance as well. For even though the philosophers and great men of yesteryear will fade to grey, what matters is something else more important entirely. Ideas, and how we spend our time gallivanting gaia. These ideas aren’t a secret mystery to be guarded. These ideas are as old as time. Older than Meditations, older than the Bible. Such works re-edify these basic principles, but they did not invent them. Fortitude, prudence, temperance and justice. Fellowship, community, and providing aid to those in destitute.
Happiness, meaning and love may be found in the “dealings with one another; sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason.” -Benjamin Franklin
Living as an upright man in accord with the cardinal virtues, cultivating charity and love of kin, community, and mankind. Living our lives by these principles; living our lives in moderation; living our lives helping our fellow man. These are the ideas and ethos we pass onto the next generation in perpetuity. For when we are forgotten, these principles stand, as they have been carved into the soluble, yet inscrutable recesses of the mind. That way, we all may laugh, have serenity, and be content as Virgil and Dante guide us across the river Styx and into Paradiso.
Lamentably, many strive for remembrance, sometimes through malcontent. So too, others strive to model idols: molding one’s own life after celebrity and stardom; desiring not light, love, and aletheia, but fame or notoriety. Many others instead yearn for an ultimate justice; transfixed upon fixing whatever he perceives to be broken, damned be ye who opposes such a stalwart, just cause. As the old saying goes “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”. The retort, coined by Orwell, which I unequivocally support, “[w]here’s the omelet?”. However, no matter how one fashions his life, he will be dust upon the annals of history.
“This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down.”
-The Hobbit, J.R. Tolkien.
A famous locution from the Little Corporal ambivalently pontificated “[m]en will risk their lives, even die for ribbons.” He’s not wrong. Nevertheless, there will come a day when even Bonaparte shall be forgotten. Michael Jordan, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson. Lost. Founding Fathers like Roger Sherman and Patrick Henry already begin to slip forever from the morasses of the soluble, inscribed mind. And so, we search for meaning, purpose and inquire.
Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, Locke, John Stuart Mill, Rousseau. They all have a point; an amiably crafted way to live one’s life. And again, they too will be forgotten. Their works lost, tarnished, ground into stump. Even the great stones upon which we carve will fade.
This is not written to affix a lugubrious expression upon the one’s face, merely to provide sobriety; perhaps, more importantly, an assurance as well. For even though the philosophers and great men of yesteryear will fade to grey, what matters is something else more important entirely. Ideas, and how we spend our time gallivanting gaia. These ideas aren’t a secret mystery to be guarded. These ideas are as old as time. Older than Meditations, older than the Bible. Such works re-edify these basic principles, but they did not invent them. Fortitude, prudence, temperance and justice. Fellowship, community, and providing aid to those in destitute.
Happiness, meaning and love may be found in the “dealings with one another; sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason.” -Benjamin Franklin
Living as an upright man in accord with the cardinal virtues, cultivating charity and love of kin, community, and mankind. Living our lives by these principles; living our lives in moderation; living our lives helping our fellow man. These are the ideas and ethos we pass onto the next generation in perpetuity. For when we are forgotten, these principles stand, as they have been carved into the soluble, yet inscrutable recesses of the mind. That way, we all may laugh, have serenity, and be content as Virgil and Dante guide us across the river Styx and into Paradiso.
~BDM
