Let’s use our imaginations a little, and hopefully to worthy ends.  First, let’s envision two Masons, Brother Bookman and Brother Wright, both of whom are intelligent, goodhearted, and beloved members of the Craft.  They are alike in many ways, yet significantly different when it comes to sports.

Brother Bookman is quite the sports aficionado, but he has never actually played any sports and isn’t personally athletic at all. Nonetheless, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of every major professional and collegiate sport, their histories and major figures, as well as the training methods, techniques, tactics, and strategies of each game. With all that information in his brain, people often seek him out whenever they have questions about sports.

Brother Wright, on the other hand, only has a somewhat average knowledge of the history and current events of sports, and often has little to contribute when talk turns in those directions. Even so, he did actually play football, basketball, and baseball as a kid. As an adult he has kept a more or less daily fitness routine and has played on church softball and basketball teams.

With these two imaginary brothers in mind, and supposing all other things about them are basically equal, let’s consider these questions:

1.      Which of these two brothers would you expect to be in better physical health?

2.      If you were going to begin a personal physical fitness regimen, would you be more likely to approach Brother Bookman or Brother Wright as a workout mentor and partner?

3.      If you were going to put together a lodge softball team or fitness program, which brother would you more likely recruit as the leader?

4.      If you had to choose, would you rather be more like Brother Bookman or more like Brother Wright?

Now consider this entire exercise as an analogy, where sports represent esoteric subjects, athleticism represents contemplative practice, and physical fitness represents psycho-spiritual well-being.  What does this suggest to you about any interests you might have in Masonic esotericism?

This article was originally created for The Laudable Pursuit and can be found at the link below:
http://www.thelaudablepursuit.com/articles/2017/6/16/an-allegory-for-the-esoterically-inclined-mason