There’s a wonderful line in a favorite movie of mine entitled “L.A. Confidential” which goes…
“Why did you become a Cop? This used to be about justice.”
Which in my limited mind, might translate to…
“Why did you become an Odd Fellow? This used to be about Friendship, Love and Truth.”
It is a pivotal question.
Sometimes we need to ask ourselves that.
When I began as a member of the Odd Fellows, I was sitting in my crazy little bookstore and a little old man approached me and described the order as some type of heaven on earth. A refuge from the outside world. A place where politics, class, race, religion were all separated from reality. I joined because it sounded wonderful, and almost too good to be true. That old man became a great friend of mine.
Now that old man has passed, and perhaps I have become the old man, although I don’t think I will ever be as wise as he was.
But the refuge still is a possibility. I want it to be one. Where we can all forget our turmoil, become one within the walls of our lodges and remember that this is about Friendship, Love, and Truth. Only that, nothing more, nothing less.
In Friendship, Love, and Truth, Rick Boyles
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