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Leaving this article, consider meditating on is the unifying element to them all? Why is it so
the eight hours a day where you have the most important to be reminded of these things?
leeway.
Perhaps the main reason is that we are mortal
Perhaps it is the power of saying no and giving an and food for worms, and each one of us at some
affirmative “no” answer to obligations that don’t point - hopefully many years from now - will be
fit into your schedule. Based on my experience: reunited with the Great Creator. Because we
to answer a flippant question at the beginning are mortal, we owe a duty to each other and we
of how to get a 25-inch gauge - the answer is have a commitment to the world.
saying no.
For the EAs and the FCs, make sure to consider
So far this article has explored how the concept and think about this and the other Masonic
of time and time management is discussed in tools as you progress through our subsequent
historic, poetic, and Masonic contexts. But what degrees.

¹ My sincere gratitude toward Worshipful Master Andrew Uhlman and Singleton Lodge. My appreciation to the following Brothers
for their feedback and comments. Zach Rubenfeld, Andrei Antonescu, Nicky Sampogna, Chris Tessone, and Mark Wright.
² Kopel J. The 24-inch gauge and the common gavel: an entered apprentice mason’s perspective on the medical profession.
Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2020 Jan.
³ Mackey, Albert, A Lexicon on Freemasonry, 1869.
⁴ Giles, John Allen, ed. William of Malmesbury’s Chronicle of the Kings of England: from the Earliest Period to the Reign of King
Stephen. Vol 3, Bohn, 1847.
⁵ “talisman, n.2. “The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed., vol. 19, Oxford University Press, 1989.
⁶ Indeed, it is as literary critic and Sterling Professor of Literature at Yale University, Harold Bloom wrote “something very like
Shakespeare’s genius for rediscovering the human. “Bloom, Harold. How to read and why. Simon and Schuster, 2001.
⁷ “Around 1725 the trigradal system of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason…on those for the degree of Entered
Apprentice and Master Mason.”
⁸ Franklin, Benjamin. “Advice to a young Tradesman (1748).” Veranstaltung vom 1748 (2020).
⁹ Franklin, Benjamin. “Advice to a young Tradesman (1748).” Veranstaltung vom 1748 (2020).
10 Crofts, Thomas, ed. The Cavalier Poets: An Anthology. Courier Corporation, 1995.

Reprinted with permission of The Voice of Freemasonry in the Nations Capital, Volume 40, Number 1, 2022.
Montana Freemason Page 21 Jan/Feb 2024 Volume 100 No.1