Quote: (04-30-2013 05:37 AM)j r Wrote:
What's special about masons?
They do a lot of theater. They have these "allegorical rituals", which can be simple or elaborate theatrical pieces, depending on the budget of the Lodge. Having your own private theatrical productions used to be a big draw. In the age of television, and now on demand video, less so, but they're still fun.
For men with daughters coming of age, they also run some cotillions and Father-Daughter dances that are legion. People will join just to get their daughters in those.
Other than that, they raise a lot of money for charities. Pancake breakfasts to help hospitalized children. Hoop Shoots for homeless shelters. In some cities they fund vision and hearing tests for school children, and for grade school children with speech and language disorders, pay for speech therapy.
Plus, if you're a Shriner, you get to ride those mini-motorcycles in parades while wearing a fez.
"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."
--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World