Doug Freyburger
2010-11-17 19:16:09 UTC
Brethren,
This month I will discuss a symbolic view of skills and how it
applies to work, lodge and life in general. I will use the table as my
symbol. Among the Masonic tools it is the trestle board upon which the
designs were drawn each day. It is that symbol I discuss today.
At work I have long tried to live by what I call my “table theory of
professional skills”. It goes like this - A table has a flat top and
legs that reach all the way to the floor. Our skills in our chosen
field should be like a table.
The flat top is a set of broad but shallow skills that apply across the
board in our chosen field of work. You'll notice that a cheap card
table has a thin and roughly textured table top that looks amateur
while an expensive heirloom quality table has a very thick table top
that is carefully polished and looks professional. The difference in
quality is how we keep breadth by having some interest in our entire
field and in how well we work with others in our entire field across
specialties.
The legs are a set of deep but narrow specialty skills that are deep
enough that colleagues come to us as subject matter experts. You'll
notice that a cheap card table has rickety metal tube legs that fold up
and go away when not in use while an expensive heirloom quality table
has very thick legs that get much wider at the floor (knowledge of the
basic principles of our field plus a foundation of critical thinking)
that stay in place no matter where we move the table. Those legs look
like a lot of professional effort was put into building them. The
difference in quality is how we keep depth by doing careful study in
specific aspects of our field and in how well we work on our own as
well as how we teach and learn from fellow specialists.
This theory would work just as well if described in terms of a work
bench. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to express that it is
important to balance between breadth and depth and to maintain both.
I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to express that it is important
to do a good job and to take pride in our work, where the work
discussed here can be any aspect of our lives worth putting effort into.
At the office I’ve tried to hold up my table theory as a strategy to
keep current and set a personal example for quality.
Consider how the symbol applies to Freemasonry. When asking brothers
what they think is the most important aspect of Freemasonry you’ll get
many answers. Some value the charitable programs. Some value the
social events. Some value the degree work. Some value the fellowship.
The list of priorities goes on and on. When I apply my table theory
it teaches me that *all* of those values are valid and all are worthy.
Taken together they are the table top. I can appreciate them all and
be supportive of all such viewpoints but I can get more personal
benefit from specializing in a few of them. And so I have ended up
specializing in a few aspects of Freemasonry over the years. I benefit
from broad comfort at the variety of activities among the brethren. I
benefit from deep satisfaction at the specialties I have decided to
pursue as hobbies with some of the brethren.
As humans we are all multifaceted. We like and do many different
activities. Some we do for the love of our companions and for the
variety of it. Some we do for the love of the subject matter and for
the intensity of it. We are family men, working men, church men, grand
fathers, lodge men and hobbyists of all sorts. In a way each of us
forms a symbolic table around which or families and friends can gather.
To be a good man and a good Mason is to be a good table, to be both a
generalist and a specialist and to make strategic choices over the
years for what to specialize in to love what we do.
“There abides faith, hope and charity. The greatest of these is
charity.” We all know that in this context the word charity means
love. Do what you love; love what you do. Balance breadth and depth
and move towards excellence in both. This is a great goal in living
our lives. It’s a goal that needs to be taught more at lodge, church,
in schools, by our parents and to our children. Each time you see a
table remember it has a symbol of love, of balance, of excellence, of
balancing breadth and depth. See that table through Masonic eyes just
as we look at a hammer through Masonic eyes as a symbol of self
betterment.
Each year I write about how much I enjoyed going to one or more of the
Table Lodges held by lodges in my geography. The table there is a
physical table. I figure I may as well make it a symbolic table as
well and so I offer this Masonic rambling. I try to become the table
and to be the best table I can be. Let’s all of us try to be not just
the trestle board table but the Round Table of the knights of King
Arthur, the Table of the Last Supper and any other table of great fame.
Here I have used a common household item, the table, as a symbol for
day to day life striving for excellence. The public goal of
Freemasonry is “To make good men better” and that means we teach a
system of personal excellence where each of us works this year to be a
better man than we were last year.
What other common household item do you see as a Masonic tool as I have
described a table as a trestle board here? It could be a hammer, saw
or knife (gavel), a ruler (gauge), almost any measuring tool (plumb,
level, square), a paint brush or caulking tool (trowel), a book or
table (trestle board). It could be any other common item that you
associate with building. How can you view that common item and use it
to help you remember the lessons we are taught at lodge?
Fraternal regards,
Doug Freyburger
PM 2007/8 Arlington Heights 1162 Illinois AF&AM
PM 1999 Pasadena 272 California F&AM
This month I will discuss a symbolic view of skills and how it
applies to work, lodge and life in general. I will use the table as my
symbol. Among the Masonic tools it is the trestle board upon which the
designs were drawn each day. It is that symbol I discuss today.
At work I have long tried to live by what I call my “table theory of
professional skills”. It goes like this - A table has a flat top and
legs that reach all the way to the floor. Our skills in our chosen
field should be like a table.
The flat top is a set of broad but shallow skills that apply across the
board in our chosen field of work. You'll notice that a cheap card
table has a thin and roughly textured table top that looks amateur
while an expensive heirloom quality table has a very thick table top
that is carefully polished and looks professional. The difference in
quality is how we keep breadth by having some interest in our entire
field and in how well we work with others in our entire field across
specialties.
The legs are a set of deep but narrow specialty skills that are deep
enough that colleagues come to us as subject matter experts. You'll
notice that a cheap card table has rickety metal tube legs that fold up
and go away when not in use while an expensive heirloom quality table
has very thick legs that get much wider at the floor (knowledge of the
basic principles of our field plus a foundation of critical thinking)
that stay in place no matter where we move the table. Those legs look
like a lot of professional effort was put into building them. The
difference in quality is how we keep depth by doing careful study in
specific aspects of our field and in how well we work on our own as
well as how we teach and learn from fellow specialists.
This theory would work just as well if described in terms of a work
bench. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to express that it is
important to balance between breadth and depth and to maintain both.
I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to express that it is important
to do a good job and to take pride in our work, where the work
discussed here can be any aspect of our lives worth putting effort into.
At the office I’ve tried to hold up my table theory as a strategy to
keep current and set a personal example for quality.
Consider how the symbol applies to Freemasonry. When asking brothers
what they think is the most important aspect of Freemasonry you’ll get
many answers. Some value the charitable programs. Some value the
social events. Some value the degree work. Some value the fellowship.
The list of priorities goes on and on. When I apply my table theory
it teaches me that *all* of those values are valid and all are worthy.
Taken together they are the table top. I can appreciate them all and
be supportive of all such viewpoints but I can get more personal
benefit from specializing in a few of them. And so I have ended up
specializing in a few aspects of Freemasonry over the years. I benefit
from broad comfort at the variety of activities among the brethren. I
benefit from deep satisfaction at the specialties I have decided to
pursue as hobbies with some of the brethren.
As humans we are all multifaceted. We like and do many different
activities. Some we do for the love of our companions and for the
variety of it. Some we do for the love of the subject matter and for
the intensity of it. We are family men, working men, church men, grand
fathers, lodge men and hobbyists of all sorts. In a way each of us
forms a symbolic table around which or families and friends can gather.
To be a good man and a good Mason is to be a good table, to be both a
generalist and a specialist and to make strategic choices over the
years for what to specialize in to love what we do.
“There abides faith, hope and charity. The greatest of these is
charity.” We all know that in this context the word charity means
love. Do what you love; love what you do. Balance breadth and depth
and move towards excellence in both. This is a great goal in living
our lives. It’s a goal that needs to be taught more at lodge, church,
in schools, by our parents and to our children. Each time you see a
table remember it has a symbol of love, of balance, of excellence, of
balancing breadth and depth. See that table through Masonic eyes just
as we look at a hammer through Masonic eyes as a symbol of self
betterment.
Each year I write about how much I enjoyed going to one or more of the
Table Lodges held by lodges in my geography. The table there is a
physical table. I figure I may as well make it a symbolic table as
well and so I offer this Masonic rambling. I try to become the table
and to be the best table I can be. Let’s all of us try to be not just
the trestle board table but the Round Table of the knights of King
Arthur, the Table of the Last Supper and any other table of great fame.
Here I have used a common household item, the table, as a symbol for
day to day life striving for excellence. The public goal of
Freemasonry is “To make good men better” and that means we teach a
system of personal excellence where each of us works this year to be a
better man than we were last year.
What other common household item do you see as a Masonic tool as I have
described a table as a trestle board here? It could be a hammer, saw
or knife (gavel), a ruler (gauge), almost any measuring tool (plumb,
level, square), a paint brush or caulking tool (trowel), a book or
table (trestle board). It could be any other common item that you
associate with building. How can you view that common item and use it
to help you remember the lessons we are taught at lodge?
Fraternal regards,
Doug Freyburger
PM 2007/8 Arlington Heights 1162 Illinois AF&AM
PM 1999 Pasadena 272 California F&AM