Summer is finally underway, and I hope each of you finds time to enjoy the outdoors and our beautiful weather. For those whose lodges are dark, there are several ways to continue supporting our gentle craft – commonly including the Shrine and/or the Widows Sons.
Another activity that may interest you is the Masonic Camp (www.masoniccamp.com). The camp is an opportunity to enjoy the company of Brothers and learn from each other in the beauty of Northern Minnesota. We have several great speakers lined up and hope you will join us August 28-30.
We also have dispensation from our Grand Master MWB Shawn Carrick to perform a first degree at the camp. If you have a candidate, consider this special opportunity for an outdoor degree. To learn more, please visit the website, or feel free to reach out to me at.
With that, we will continue to explore the Trowel, and the words of our own MWB Tom Hendrickson. Below is the continuation of last month’s eMason article, and Tom’s thoughts on the trowel. I hope you enjoy it.
Until our paths next cross, travel well.
The Trowel: Building with Brotherly Love (Part Two)
By MWB Tom Hendrickson
The Trowel Beyond the Lodge
The lessons of the Trowel are not meant to stay inside the Lodge. Just as a wall is built brick by brick, the world around us is shaped moment by moment through the way we treat one another. Every interaction becomes an opportunity to spread the cement of Brotherly Love and affection.
Outside the Lodge, we meet people who do not share our background, our beliefs, or our experiences. We encounter disagreements, misunderstandings, and the rough edges of daily life. These are the places where the Trowel matters most. It reminds us that our task is not to judge the stones, but to bind them. Not to widen the cracks, but to mend them.
The Trowel calls us to be builders in a world that often prefers to tear down. It asks us to look for ways to strengthen relationships rather than strain them, to offer patience where others offer impatience, and to extend kindness where it is least expected. These small acts of care are the mortar that holds families together, supports friendships, and builds communities that can withstand hardship.
Just as my father taught me that a wall depends on the care given to each brick, the Trowel teaches that society depends on the care we give to each person. A generous word, a thoughtful gesture, a willingness to listen, these are the motions of the Trowel in everyday life. They bind us together in ways that are stronger than we often realize.
The world will always have its fractures. But the Trowel reminds us that we are not powerless in the face of them. Freemasons are builders, not destroyers, men who strengthen what is weak, mend what is broken, and bind together what might otherwise fall apart.
The Call of the Trowel
The Trowel is not a tool of force or dominance. It does not cut, strike, or shape. Its purpose is gentler, but no less powerful. It binds. It heals. It brings together what might otherwise remain separate. In the hands of an operative mason, it unites bricks into a wall. In the hands of a Master Mason, it unites people into a community.
The world gives us many opportunities to divide ourselves, to harden our opinions, or to let small cracks widen into lasting fractures. The Trowel calls us to a different kind of work, the work of connection. It reminds us that the strength of any structure, whether a wall or a Lodge or a friendship, depends on the care we give to each bond.
Every day offers us a chance to spread a little more of that cement, a moment of patience, a gesture of kindness, a willingness to listen, a choice to mend rather than break. These small acts may seem insignificant, but they are the quiet motions that hold our world together.
In the end, the Trowel teaches a simple but profound truth. Freemasons are builders, not destroyers. We are called to strengthen what is weak, to repair what is damaged, and to bind together what might otherwise fall apart. The wall we build is made of relationships, and the bridge we build is made of Brotherly Love. The work is never finished.
The Trowel reminds us that every bond matters, every connection counts, and every act of Brotherly Love helps build a world that is a little more stable, a little more compassionate, and a little more whole.