Brethren,

This year is an exceptional time for me personally and my family; my wife (Patti), my children, my parents, my siblings and brothers of the lodge.   I only hope that I will be able to perform in this noble position to the standards that you the brothers have entrusted me to.  I know that with the support and guidance of the members of the lodge we can continue to grow and demonstrate what a true mason is to the community and the members of the lodge. 

As a fraternity we are entrenched in deep traditions of how we do business and exercise our character and duties to the brothers and community.  We have all been through these rituals and have committed ourselves to them and to the brothers.  We all have brought difference of opinions to the lodge and through these differences we all have grown and shared our knowledge, experience, willingness to help, and caring for each other and others among our community.  We have laughed in joy and cried in sorrow as we experience as a brotherhood the joys of each other’s lives and the sorrows each other has boron.   We stand together as one unit of belief in deity and a willingness to help a worthy brother and his when needed.   This is what distinguishes us from the rest of the world.  But there are things that we each bring when we come to the lodge, something personal, the characters that we learned growing up.  These character traits are picked up along the paths that we travel as we grow and mature, some are honorable and some may not be.  But, brothers each of you would not be here tonight if you did not at least demonstrate some of those honorable traits in your lives.  As for someone to be a mason there are particular traits that we required a man to posses to become a mason.  Let me review just a few;

• To obey the moral law.
• To be a good man and true.
• To observe those lessons and duties inculcated in the several lectures and charges of the three Symbolic degrees of Freemasonry
• To keep and perform the several obligations of those degrees

What do these mean to me, and what do they mean to you.  We all have people in our lives who have helped shaped our lives and instilled the values of each of these traits; trust, honesty, commitment, willingness, preparedness.   Look into your past, your lives history and answer the question; who taught you these traits?  If could be a friend, an organization, a family member, or a stranger that you encountered in your walks of life.  I look a lot to my father.   He had these sayings or parables that he used to explain or make a point.  They resonate with me daily in the things that I do. If you think about them and what they really mean, you too can find that they can help anyone be a better man or person.  I have taken them to heart and live my life by them and have shared them with my children and can only hope they will live their lives by them also.  I see a lot of them in the duties of the masons.  The fact that my father is a past master, a mason of the 32 degree and a past certified lecture maybe he was all along teaching me as we all teach each other in the lodge to live our lives to the duties of an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason.  Let me share them with you.

“If I tell you a Billy goat can pull a freight train you hook him up.” Or “If I tell you a chicken can dip snuff you lift his wing and a snuff box will be there.”   This has taught me to be truthful, and speak only what is true and right.  If a person cannot be honest and trusted in his word, what shall come of him, how should he be viewed by others, as a mason we are to be good men, who can be trusted and expected to do the right thing.

“If you are going to work for the Candy Store then be part of the Candy Store.”  This teaches commitment.   If you are going to be part of an organization then you should be committed to the organization.  Willing to work, share, teach others, and commit to being there when required and when needed.  Do not just be associated by name only or wear the uniform, in our case the ring or symbols, but be there, in heart, mind, soul and body.  We are a brotherhood that extends to the far reaches of the earth; your commitment will enable others and assist others.

“I have money, marbles, and chalk, a way to ride and I do not have to walk.”  Be prepared.   Never do things half hearted.  Be willing to do your best and put the time and effort to what it takes to do that.  If you except second rate then you get second rate.  Americans love a winner; we all want to be winners, but to be one you have to prepare.  Never go into or doing something without putting the time and effort it takes to prepare. 

And the one that I speak about the most; I even have it posted on my bulletin board at work for others to see.  I have always lived by this and hope that I have demonstrated this to you brothers here tonight.  If you take nothing from this but this one statement and live by it you will do all the others.  For it in itself is the hinge that makes all the others come true.  If you do this you will do the others for this alone will lead you down the road to the others. 

“Expand or Expire” Be willing to learn something always.  Expand your mind, your heart and your soul.  If you are willing to learn then you will accomplish all the other tasks, and demonstrate all the other traits that I have spoken of tonight.  Commit yourself to learning our traits, our rituals, your duties, our way and manners.  In doing this you will become the better man, brother, Mason, father, and community leader.  Wealth does not make you this, as we say in the First Degree it is the internal and not external qualifications that make a man a mason. 

I hope that you see these traits in me and that I can share and demonstrate them to you and the other brothers for this coming year.  I look forward to the year and hope that each and every one of you does also.

Fraternally,

Dwain Wilkins                     

Master – Cabarrus Lodge #720