Recently, I read about an anti-Mason who was going on, once again, about the "evils" of Masonry's alleged "secrecy." It amazes me that, with all the information available, some people still beat that long-deceased horse. Much of this special "Family Life" issue of the Journal deals with family values. It seems to me that one of the greatest values of the family is seldom mentioned, and that value is secrecy, another word for privacy. Certainly secrecy is involved in many of my own warmest memories. There is the pre-birthday plotting for example. Many of us can remember, both as children and as parents, the weeks of secret discussions leading to someone's birthday. Ideas for presents were discussed, plans for parties were formulated, all with an air of mystery which makes a tiled meeting of a Lodge seem like a public event. For that matter, there was usually a "Tyler" on duty during these family discussions to warn of the approach of the key person involved.

Mother's Day and Father's Day brought about very similar secret conclaves, while the entire month of December was devoted to private conferences of various groups, forming and reforming. Each parent and child held secrets, made more inviolate than any Masonic Obligation by the hope of seeing surprise and delight on the faces around the tree on Christmas morning.

Love often expresses itself in secrecy. What higher honor can a parent receive then to have a child pour out the sorrows and troubles of its heart, knowing that the parent will listen and will keep in confidence everything that is said? What trophy or plaque or jewel of office is as precious as a Father's Day card from a child, now an adult, who writes on it, "Dad, you never let me down. I could always talk to you, and you never told anyone what I told you." Secrecy is a family value as well as a social virtue and fraternal tradition.

There are those, and anti-Masons are among them, who insist all secrecy is wrong. They either are not really thinking, or they are remarkably foolish. A world without secrecy? A world in which no friend could share his burden by telling us the fears and doubts which assail him, knowing that they will go no further? A world in which no child could trust a parent not to "give him away" when he shared his hopes and dreams? A world in which there were no surprises, no sudden, unexpected joys, no faces alight with unanticipated happiness? Who would choose to live in such a world?

In this special "Family Life" issue of the Scottish Rite Journal, you will see many values and ideals discussed. They are all important, and I commend them all to your attention. But do not forget the value and the virtue of secrecy.