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'This page has been approved by the United Grand Lodge of England’
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[January 2007] [February 2007] [March 2007] [April 2007] [May 2007} [June 2007} [July 2007] [August 2007] [September 2007] [October 2007][November 2007] [December 2007]
July 2007 IN MODERATION – One of the watchwords of our fraternity is Temperance, while one of the working tools is presented with the representation symbolically of spending parts of our day in work, part in prayer and part in helping someone in need. All point towards moderation of one’s activities, giving each part of it a place, and not over-indulging in the one or the other. From years of practice, and having involved myself in several pursuits of pleasure, play and profession, I would heartily recommend moderation as the one guiding precept which has kept one not only out of serious mischief, but from needless anxieties of body and soul, while remaining engaged with the world. Our fraternal principles constantly exhort us to be temperate, to follow a well-regulated course of discipline as may best conduce to the preservation of our corporeal and mental faculties in their fullest energy - so one needs to say no more. There’s another practical and utilitarian aspect to moderation, which is that it enables one to avoid the danger of any one activity monopolizing the use of one’s time. The careful apportioning and management of Time, in itself, will lead to moderate usage, not only of that precious commodity, but also the effect that such allocation has on the best use of one’s faculties. Time should also not be allowed to hang heavy, leading to boredom which in turn leads to a profligate use of leisure by turning to ‘time-pass’ activities such as propping up a bar or becoming a TV couch-potato. Moderation therefore seeks to control also the abuse of pleasures once sought, but through over-indulgence become a liability – be it bingeing on food or any other recipe for reducing tedium. Why, I can even include excessive Masonic activity in this category unless it be an attachment to its recommended way of life and not to the trappings that accompany such an attachment. There can never be too much of shared things – Love, Charity, Faith, Peace. The community needs our excesses of these attributes, the individual in us needs moderation in the pursuit of our own satisfactions. May we all seek to be moderate, in this increasingly self-centred world, bringing credit to ourselves and to the society to which we belong.
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