Mother Lodge

Paper 38/2007 Title Mother Lodge Author Bro Stephen Wall – United Kingdom I have only been a mason for a short time and indeed have yet to be raised. However in a tranquil moment I started wondering where my journey had begun.
After thinking long and hard, I quite clearly remembered being in school at age 15 and completing two assignments. One was a potted history on the causes of WW1 the other a book report of a collection of famous British poems it was whilst looking through the poetry book that I came across a poem entitled the mother lodge by Rudyard Kipling. Obviously I had no idea to what Kipling was alluding to with regards to lodge references but it struck me that here were a group of men in a corner of the British empire that in total contrast to their faith, position in society or nationality they appeared to enjoy and revel in each others company and made the best of what they had, even to the extent that they had no meals “lest a brothers caste was broke”
Years later, after I had become a nurse, a Jewish gentleman was admitted to my ward. Whilst completing his nursing notes I asked him of his next of kin. He replied that he had no family. However over the course of three weeks many gentlemen of differing backgrounds came to visit bringing a wealth of provisions reading items and c onvivial chat and, most often, chocolate for the nurses! When I asked him who all these men were he answered “they are my brothers”. I then said “how can that be one was Asian, one a Jew one old and one young”? He then gave me the following advice “not every man who I call brother will call my mother, mother………but I break bread with them and meet them on the level and leave them on the square and they are my brothers in life”. This obviously left me a little confused. It was only after I became a mason that I remembered Kipling’s poem and reread it again. Straight away the old gentleman I looked after came to mind and everything fell into place.
I feel honoured to be part of tradition that can bring strangers of different backgrounds, ethnicity and creeds together on a regular basis. But I am more humbled that I am part of a tradition that lets me call these men brothers and allows me to be theirs. I believe that there is a crucially element missing in society today and that thing is the basis on which Masonry is built - Brotherly love, relief and truth.