Robert G. Davis, 33°
PO Box 70, Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044

At a time when the price of almost everything seems to climb each year, and with technology advancing by leaps and bounds, it gets increasingly difficult to determine the value of things. It is hard to know just what we are actually paying for. Do we pay more because we are getting better quality with new technology? Do we pay more because we perceive that certain models, brand names, or designer fashions are more valuable to us than others? Or do we really use value at all as a basis for most things we buy?

It is likely the deciding factor in terms of what most of us are willing to pay comes down to how much we have to spend. We decide what choices we can make and then, perhaps, assess value within that range of choices. And each of us has our own definition of value. Some of us will pay more because we have more. We take it for granted that value is reflected in the price of things. Others define value as the savings we receive or the "deal" we get, as if a discounted price somehow enhances the value of the item. Still others buy things that are old or secondhand, thinking the older something is, the better it is. Here, value is equated with age, as with a fine wine.

In the overall world of consumer products, how we decide value, then, is really pretty simple—it depends entirely on how we feel about the product or service.

But, in the world of what has real, not just material, meaning in life, how do we look at value? How does one place a value on freedom? On faith? On integrity? How valuable is democracy, or patriotism, or truth? How much would we pay, if these things could be bought? Could we afford them? How much is it worth to know we can always have them? How do we know what has meaning to us also has value to others? How does one define the value of truth? Who's to say that one person's idea of truth is better than another's concept? How do we find the answers to these and other meaningful questions when many of us don't even know that such questions are important to ask?

It isn't easy to know how much value a thing has when there is no clear price on it. And because the really meaningful things in life can't be bought anyway, we often have to look beyond our own experience to understand why these things are, in fact, valuable. When it comes to life's intangible blessings, we are not so much dealing with what is popular. We are assessing what is right and true for us, what gives us the freedom to have what we want in life, and what causes us to feel good about ourselves and our future.

This is precisely where the Scottish Rite comes into importance in our lives.

The Scottish Rite gives every man a means whereby he can contemplate the questions personally important to him. It is a forum where men of all faiths and creeds, all nationalities, and all walks of life can meet to discover what the most learned have said about life's most meaningful questions—questions of faith and reason and truth. The Degrees of the Scottish Rite represent the history of man's journey in the search for moral and ethical improvement. Their lessons are profound and yield, for the thoughtful, historical understanding and personal insight.

In the Blue Lodge, our search is for a higher awareness of ourselves. In the Rite, our search is for intellectual truth. And our quest is made by free will, the key to the enlightened mind. Everything else in life is subordinate to man's freedom to think and inquire for himself. Enlightenment is an intensely personal journey for each of us. When we each have the will to learn, when the path to knowledge is unrestricted, when the search for wisdom is real, and when the lessons offered help us define what has meaning in life, then and only then can we approach the true value of the Scottish Rite experience.

We may not be able to place a price on it. But when we understand what the Rite truly offers and then live its wisdom in our daily lives, the Scottish Rite becomes among the most important assets we will ever own. It literally represents the model of personal freedom for the human race. Today, as we enter a new millennium, we should be more grateful than ever that we are Scottish Rite Masons. Let us embrace our trusteeship of this great intellectual, moral, and ethical tradition. Let us learn from its precepts and never forget the real value of Scottish Rite Freemasonry to ourselves and to the world.

Robert G. Davis is the Secretary of the Scottish Rite Bodies in Guthrie, Oklahoma. He is Past Master of two Oklahoma Lodges, serves as editor of the Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason, is actively involved with Masonic education and renewal programs both in Oklahoma and nationally, and is the immediate Past President of the International Philalethes Society.