Roses and Togas

This past weekend were two more receptions for appointive officers and they were truly diverse.

We started on Saturday with a trip to the Grand Ole Opry, a formal reception with a lovely barbecue dinner and a country western band for entertainment.  It turns out that the last trip the honored member took with her husband before he died was to the Grand Ole Opry and having that theme was a tribute.  There was no doubt that it was very important and meaningful for the honoree, but I must admit that it is hard to watch your honoree cry when you're trying to please them.  You just have to remember that even happy memories can be bittersweet sometimes.  But there were many more and plenty of happy moments and surprises too.

One thing that caused an interesting conversation for me later was that the singers did a heavy gospel number when the Bible was brought in for the prayer.  Ironically, this particular song, heavy on the saviour and the saving stuff, didn't bother me in the slightest, because it was a reception for a particular person and I feel very strongly that as long as we stay this side of good taste and decency, the music at a reception should be what the honored member wants.  Like a wedding, the bride should have what she wants, within reasonable boundaries of common sense and good taste.  So this song was meaning neutral for me because while it carried no particular meaningfulness for me, I was glad for the honoree if she was getting what she wanted. 

(As a side note, when the Bible was carried in for my reception, the song coming in was a Jewish High Holiday song that is the favorite of a dear friend of mine and the going out song for the Bible was Adon Olam, which is my favorite song from the Sabbath liturgy.  I am sure that few if any people recognized the songs, played without words, but I liked them and they are great pieces of music.)

So the irony was that after the reception was over, a gentleman that I do not know, but who I assume was Jewish because he was wearing a Chai, which means Life in Hebrew, was unhappy and confused because he thought that Masonic principles were more ecumenical and he was made uncomfortable by the VERY Christian song.  But he was comforted by reassurances that this particular song was done just for this special member, for her special day and that the Order as a whole is supposed to be following Masonic principles of embracing a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being without requiring or affiliating to a particular religious denomination or sect.

This was weird for me because I am not comfortable with some things that happen at OVs, which are supposed to be Chapter meetings, like gospel songs heavy on the saving, groups that form a cross to carry the Bible and/or emblems in and out, escorting a Christian flag, and so on.  There are some Chapters that do these things and I generally just don't visit those.  I totally respect the right of the members to do those things in their own Chapter meeting and I always encourage people to check out two or three Chapters if they can, to find the right one for them.  But at the Official Visit, when you have lots of people from all over and they are all different religious beliefs, I prefer sticking to the ecumenical, non-sectarian stuff.

After the formality and solemnity of Saturday night, we all got a little whiplash attending Sunday's reception with its Delta House/Animal House/Toga Party theme.  The members of the honored member's Chapter were dressed up in all variety of Roman wear, some tunics, some togas, some dresses, oh my!  Since this reception was for a wild and crazy guy, it was a wild and crazy reception.  I must say that I hope no one actually drank all the cheap Coors Light and Budweiser beer that came out of the cans they put up for decorations because there were lots of cans on strings around the room.  The speeches were funny and the music cute too.  We were treated to a lovely lip sync rendition of Shout, complete with dancing and jumping and if in my entire life, I never see another guy in a brightly colored plaid jacket with pink pants and a pink tie, I think that will be okay because some things should only be experienced once. :-)

Next weekend, I am in Santa Rosa and Napa.