It is a terrible thing, despair. It can so easily lead to destruction - of self-confidence, of relationships, of the will to keep going, or worse.
     Recently, our newspapers have been filled with one such tragedy. A man who lost everything decided to destroy everything. He destroyed his expensive cars, his expensive house, his innocent animals and then his wife and his teenage daughter - a young girl who can never now realise her dreams.
     There are a host of reasons why despair can arrive like some alcoholic uncle from a trailer park but once it has become comfortable it becomes very difficult to push back out the door. It takes the sort of courage, dogged persistence and support that people in the grip of despair often lack.
     People crave objects, money, prestige, power, their self-image becomes entangled by these outward trappings of what society identifies as success. When these fail, the exposure of the superficiality of their lives is often too difficult to bear. Yet, out of such wreckage, a new vision can emerge, one focussed upon those aspects of life which are not subject to the vagaries of commerce or public acclaim. But this new vision can only emerge if one has the courage to recognise it.
     Sadly, in this widely reported case, such courage was lacking. Despair emerged from the failure of a life driven by greed and a desire for prestige in the community as if this were solely based upon nothing more than a glittering outward show. Of course, it often is and we are regularly shocked when the apparently stable turn out to have built their lives upon shifting sands.
     Freemasonry has long been aware of these dangers. Freemasonry encourages every man to act ‘on the square’ and ‘on the level,’ that is, to treat others with openness, honesty and in recognition of their right to dignity and respect. This is put succinctly in the explanation of the Working Tools of the Second Degree: these tradesman’s tools are used as symbols to teach morality, equality, justness and uprightness of life and actions.
     The text further explains that our journey to the source of all goodness is by ‘square conduct, level steps, and upright intentions.’
     But such honesty is not just important in our dealings with others. We must also be honest with ourselves.
     When we enter the lodge for the first time we are asked if we are free. There are many different ways of understanding this: that, for example, we are free men not slaves, we are our own masters, able to enter into a contract or take an oath for ourselves, or that we are not otherwise obligated to any other organisation. But more than this we are affirming that we are free of the emotional storms or unrequited desires which might lead us off the journey to the centre, the source of goodness.
     When we say that we are free are we indeed being honest? Above all, are we being honest with ourselves? Or are we still obligated to those destructive beliefs that more is better, greed is good, and that money and power are proofs of success?
     For if we believe these things then we are not free.
     Freemasonry does not deny the benefits which life can give, the financial, political or religious power which some have thrust upon them. But it reminds us that these advantages are fleeting and are nothing when compared to the beauty and wealth of the spirit in the centre of each man: ‘It’s the man himself who’s gold.’
     And the man who knows the gold in his heart will never give way to despair.
     A Freemason, gripped perhaps by a tempest in his worldly affairs, will know that he has the support and affection of many brothers who will help. This fact alone establishes the value of Freemasonry in the twenty-first and any other century.
     And further, Freemasons are encouraged to listen to the voice within which ‘bears witness that even in this perishable frame resides a vital and immortal principle’ one which gives confidence and an inner peace, making a man despair can never touch.

In the last Issue of Freemasonry Today I urged all Brethren to sign up to the NHS organ donors appeal. This generated a considerable amount of correspondence, all of it, I am very happy to say, supportive and motivated by a desire to help. One question though was asked on a number of occasions, is there an age limit on organ donation?
     The answer is that there cannot be any fixed age limit since organs deteriorate at different rates with different people. It is a person’s physical condition which is important, not their age.
     As I stressed in the last issue, the donation of organs can quite literally be the gift of life. And that has to be the greatest legacy anyone can leave.
     Remember: NHS Organ Donor Register 0845 60 60 400 or www.uktransplant.org.uk
     Erratum: In Issue No. 3 (Summer 2008), page 50, an error credited the book review of The Mythology of Secret Societies to me. In fact the review was by Matthew Scanlan.

Michael Baigent, MA