C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander

There are no limits to the successes Masonry can achieve, if only we don’t care who gets the credit.

February’s holidays are celebrations of love and patriotic pride, such as Valentine’s Day and the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. Also, this month brings the breaking up of winter and burgeoning hints of spring. Despite these glories, February is the shortest of months. A legend has it that Julius Caesar, when the calendar was reformed, removed a day from February to add it to his own new month of July so that his namesake month would have the maximum number of days. Whether this story is true or not, it is typical of the all-too-human ego which so often gets in the way of reasonableness.

I have written in the the Scottish Rite Journal before that there is no limit to what a person can accomplish so long as he doesn’t care who gets the credit. That’s been proven true time and again in every area of life, including Freemasonry. We all know of many Masons who have accomplished great good for the Fraternity because they simply get things done and don’t care whether they get any credit for it at all. We would be lost without them.

It was a petty thing to shorten a month to gratify the ego of an emperor. It probably affected little else than calendar computations. It is not so petty a thing, though, when ego intrudes on or obstructs the good work of Freemasonry on any level.

The great glory of Masonry is that it is bigger and greater than any man. Masonry is not a monument to an individual, but to an ideal. It is not the fiefdom of a particular office, but a field of common effort and work. It is not the private feast of a ruler, but the common banquet in which all share as equals. And if some are elected to serve as leaders, the rituals of Freemasonry remind us all that they are only the "first among equals." "From the ranks you have emerged, and to the ranks you will shortly return."

Masonry works, and works well, as long as we all work, as long as every Mason cares more about the task than the glory, more about the outcome than the credit, more about doing something than being someone.

In most states, new Lodge officers have only recently taken the reins. In most Valleys, new officers of the four Bodies have only recently been installed. It is a good time to remind ourselves that we must be directed to the tasks. "Who best can work and best agree" has always been the standard for our Fraternity.

Ideas, good ideas which can greatly benefit Masonry, are everywhere to be found, if only we will listen. Workers to implement those ideas are there, if only we will treat them with respect. There are no limits to the successes Masonry can achieve, if only we don’t care who gets the credit.

Let every Brother remember that it is of no importance whether his name goes on the project, so long as the work is done. Let every Mason banish personal ego in favor of fraternal accomplishment, and let the job come first.