The Better Man
Joseph F. Edwards, 32°
1144 Edwards Lane, Benson, Arizona 85602

When our Lodge breaks from labor to refreshment at mid-meeting, we have an education program for our wives, children, and grandchildren in the social hall. Sitting near Joanne and a few other wives of Masons, I heard this captivating story.

During Joanne's childhood, her parents required family chores be executed immediately. That kept order in the household and taught diligence. Clothes run through a wringer washer were hung on the clothesline with expediency and, when dry, were immediately folded and dispatched to the dresser drawers of various family members.

One day while placing clean socks in the top drawer of her father's dresser, Joanne ran across a small black book. The book, having no title on its cover, spurred her curiosity. She opened it and found an array of meaningless letters printed with punctuation on page after page. Flipping pages, she discovered the entire book displayed a continuous sequence of nothing but alphabet letters.

Later that day, while in repose on her father's lap, Joanne inquired, "Daddy, when I put your clean socks away, I found a book in the drawer. It had nothing but letters on the pages. How can it be read? What does it mean? Who can read it?"

With an endearing look at his sincere little girl, and thinking only of the best life for her future, he replied, "Honey, when you grow up and have thoughts of raising your own family, you find a man who can read that book, and you marry him!"

Would that all our loving and innocent daughters had a chance to marry good men seeking to be better men.

Joseph F. Edwards writes under the pseudonym Doby. He is a retired teacher and Master of San Pedro Lodge No. 55, Benson, Ariz. He collects stories of Masonic human interest and distributes them to various Arizona trestleboards. A regular contributor to the Southern Arizona Research Lodge No. 2, Tucson, he is also a member of the Sierra Vista York Rite Bodies and the Tucson Scottish Rite Bodies. His recent book, The Last Full Measure of Devotion, is the biography of an Irish immigrant Mason who was a Union Captain during the Civil War. It is available from the author by calling 1–520–586–2089, $10.00 plus $3.00 postage.