The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

This past weekend, we attended three Official Visits. Two of them were in the LA Basin, in West Covina and in Riverside, and one was out in the desert, in Yucca Valley. One of the things that strikes me as different between the City and the Country from these visits is that the pace of life, the importance of groups and social ties and the challenges of the membership seem different between these groups. But, where people live does not really seem to decide if they are a true City Mouse or a Country Mouse. It seems to go more towards their desires and expectations. The City Mouse seems in more of a hurry and their involvement in the Masonic family is one of many activities calling on their time and interest. They seem to prefer shorter meetings and less formality. They love their Chapter and want it to provide a range of activities, but extra meetings, like an Official Visit, seem harder to work into an already full schedule. However, while they have more trouble with the time, they have less problems with distance because many members live and/or work close to their hall. The City Mouse doesn't want to have to travel too far away to get to an event. My home geography is more like a City Mouse and when I was a Deputy, I had several chapters in my district and the farthest from my home was my own home Chapter and that was only twenty-five minutes away. It was hard to make meetings because of my work schedule, but not because of how far I had to go. The Country Mouse seems to have more time for Masonic family activities, but maybe because that is because there are simply less other distractions. For the most part, they seem able to schedule extra activities, but many people may have trouble attending because of the distances involved. I know one Deputy who had only two chapters, but they were 150 miles apart, so visiting the one that she did not live near was a major undertaking. I never thought about getting a hotel room just to visit a Chapter (well, not until I became a Grand Officer and since then, okay, it happens to me every weekend, but I am talking about normal people, here), but this Deputy regularly had to get a room to go because by the time the meeting let out at 10:00 or later, she wasn't up to driving home. The thing about the Country Mouse though that seems to clash with the City Mouse is that the Country Mouse wants more to happen to justify the drive. If you are going to travel two hours each way, four hours round trip, to be somewhere, the Country Mouse would like the event to last at least three or four hours to make the travel worthwhile. Now that I have a true appreciation for the time the travel can take, I sometimes feel like a Country Mouse in this aspect. If I have come hundreds of miles, I want an activity that keeps me occupied for longer to make the trip more worthwhile. So this takes me to two interesting places. First, I know that the day will come that I will be the lucky person to decide which Chapter goes in which District and I also know that Thou Shalt Not Cross An Association Line, but I wonder if there is also some friction when you mix City Mice and Country Mice. If you have some people who only want to come if the event is close and short, perhaps mixing them with people that will come a long way, but only if the event is longer does seem fraught with danger. On the other hand, any Chapter can have a mix of City Mice and Country Mice, making it harder to tell what you are dealing with. The second thing that strikes me is that having different types of focus makes it very hard for one size to fit all. Some things seem to work better in some areas and other things in other areas, so maybe conformity has to give way to diversity. That could be true in a lot of aspects and I am sure that I will learn more about them as my travels continue. Next weekend, I am in Chowchilla and Fresno for four events.