Love your posts, however, feel I need to comment on your post about not reading ritual - all it takes is applying consistent study.
Many live with anxiety and memory loss and possibly dementia and other related maladies, reading is less obvious of a prompt than some cases and less obvious than some DCs and other brethren who like to chime in.
Lodge is important for many socially and helping with their resilience.
You are correct - there are those who do have anxieties about doing memory work. Masonry is about making good men better. Part of this is building confidence especially in public speaking. Being in Lodge on a regular basis a brother can in a way become familiar with various lectures and can then start to learn them. Start off with small lectures. Have a practice buddy. Ensure one attends practices where they can recite the lecture in a Lodge room with friendly encouragement. Let them know that other brethren (even those who are good ritualistic) have some nervousness as well. Remind them that no matter how good a ritualist one is - they will make mistakes or need a prompt or two. No one is perfect. Then once they have done the lecture in Lodge, give them a thumbs up and talk to them after about their experience.
Hi Darren
Love your posts, however, feel I need to comment on your post about not reading ritual - all it takes is applying consistent study.
Many live with anxiety and memory loss and possibly dementia and other related maladies, reading is less obvious of a prompt than some cases and less obvious than some DCs and other brethren who like to chime in.
Lodge is important for many socially and helping with their resilience.
You are correct - there are those who do have anxieties about doing memory work. Masonry is about making good men better. Part of this is building confidence especially in public speaking. Being in Lodge on a regular basis a brother can in a way become familiar with various lectures and can then start to learn them. Start off with small lectures. Have a practice buddy. Ensure one attends practices where they can recite the lecture in a Lodge room with friendly encouragement. Let them know that other brethren (even those who are good ritualistic) have some nervousness as well. Remind them that no matter how good a ritualist one is - they will make mistakes or need a prompt or two. No one is perfect. Then once they have done the lecture in Lodge, give them a thumbs up and talk to them after about their experience.